The  Religion  of 
a Socialist 


By  Mary  B.  Rules 


r 


THE  RELIGION 

OF  A SOCIALIST 


BY  MARY  B.  RULES 


■V  p’  ■ r / 

‘:5  - 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist 


in 

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A little  history  for  big  children.  It  will  help  to  make  the 
right  kind  of  new  history  by  its  truthful  and  scientific  explana- 
tion of  the  past.  Help  to  put  it  in  the  hands  of  every  grown-up 
child  and  a better  future  will  result. 

Send  for  my  book  on  the  white  slave  evil,  ‘‘A  Warning  to 
Young  Girls,”  10  cents  per  copy.  Send  all  orders  to  Mary  B. 
Rules,  Lyceum  Building,  Socialist  Headquarters,  Pittsburgh,  Pa. 


I say,  shall  we  rule  by  the  Golden  Rule,  or  by  the  Rule  of  Gold  that 
sways. 

So  mightily  human  interests  now  in  the  .keen  commercial  days? 

Shall  a man  be  a man  in  the  sense  God  m^nt  when  he  made  in  His 
image  fine. 

Out  of  the  drifting  dust  of  the  earth,  the  human  form  divine? 

Or  shall  he  be  as  broken  clod  for  the  growing  of  other  men^s  grain? 

I say,  shall  we  rule  by  the  law  of  God,  or  the  law  of  might  and  main  ? 

Shall  we  grind  men^s  bones  in  the  money-mills,  in  the  gourmand  hop- 
per of  greed. 

Unheeding  the  cry  of  the  crushed-out  lives  and  the  blood  of  the  hearts 
that  bleed? 

Shall  a man  be  clay  in  the  hands  of  his  kind,  and  bound  to  the  potter ^s 
wheel. 

Or  an  agent  free  to  aspire  and  attain  to  the  goal  of  the  spirit’s  zeal? 

Shall  we  make  him  as  ore  in  the  ingot  stamp,  as  a cog  in  the  con- 
quering mills? 

I say,  shall  we  sway  by  the  gold  of  love,  or  the  love  of  gold  that  kills  ? 

Shall  we  bind  men’s  souls  to  the  barren  rock  for  the  vulturous  beaks 
to  flay, 

F or  the  buzzards  of  lustful  loot  to  pick,  till  the  soul  be  withered  away  ? 

Shall  a man  be  booty  for  men  more  strong,  be  prize  for  the  pirate’s 
sack,-  f 

Or  a craft  toT  sail  all  seas  of  hope  on  his  own  unhampered  track  ? 

Shall  we  make  him  an  admiral  on  the  bridge,  or  a slave  in  the  galley’s 
hold? 

say,  shall  we  rule  by  the  Golden  Rule,  or  ruin  by  the  Rule  of  Gold? 

Men  lived  on  this  earth — without  any  doubt  at  all — more 
than  two  hundred  thousand  years  ago. 

The  man  whose  skull  was  recently  dug  up  in  England^ — or. 


4 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist, 

rather,  the  woman's,  since  the  scientists  called  it  a woman's 
skull — lived  probably,  at  the  very  least,  a quarter  of  a million 
years  ago. 

What  we  call  history  is  but  a day  in  the  life  of  humanity  on 
this  planet,  just  as  the  life  of  humanity,  having  lasted  only  a 
quarter  of  a million  years,  is  as  a day  in  the  whole  life  of  a planet 
which  has  existed  for  scores  of  millions  of  years,  and  will  exist 
during  long  millions  of  years  to  come — barring  some  rushing 
together  of  suns  in  space  or  some  other  cosmic  catastrophe. 

Strange  were  the  men  and  the  women  that  lived  in  the  night 
of  time,  before  history  began,  before  flint  had  been  sharpened 
into  tools,  before  the  weeds  had  been  cultivated  and  the  seeds 
changed  into  grain,  before  the  animal  had  been  tamed,  ridden, 
milked,  and  kept  for  food  in  the  dreary  winter. 

If  today  you  saw  in  a cage  one  of  your  ancestors  of  a quar- 
ter of  a million  years  back,  you  would  not  know  him  for  a man. 
And  he  would  not  know  you.  And  the  cage  with  strong  bars 
would  be  necessary  to  save  you.  If  he  could  get  hold  of  you  he 
would  strangle  you  with  powerful  monkey  arms  and  at  his  leisure 
eat  the  marrow  from  your  bones — that  was  the  habit  of  our 
respected  ancestors  of  that  250,000  B.  C. 


It  would  fill  you  with  horror  to  realize  the  lives  that  those 
ancient  ancestors  of  ours  were  compelled  to  lead — yet  YOUR 
blood  was  in  them,  and  your  thought,  undeveloped,  was  in  them, 
as  they  stood  shivering  in  some  icy  pool  of  water  waiting  for  the 
departure  of  the  animal  that  had  chased  them,  as  they  crept  into 
their  caves  and  rolled  rocks  before  the  door,  as  they  huddled  in 
the  cold  biting  wind  on  their  platforms  built  for  safety  above  the 
lakes,  as  they  fought  against  nature  and  against  each  other — 
ALL  PRACTICING  CANNIBALISM,  unless  they  were  too  feeble 
to  kill  their  enemy. 

The  dwellers  in  the  buildings  would  not  recognize  him  as 
human.  And  he  would  never,  for  an  instant,  believe  that  huma^ 
beings,  his  descendants,  HIS  CHILDREN,  had  thrown  those  pal* 
aces  of  steel  and  glass  up  toward  the  sky,  lighting  them  with  the 
lightning's  power,  heating  them  with  coal  from  the  depths  of  the 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist,  5 

earth,  talking  from  one  to  the  other  on  wires,  and  out  across  the 
ocean  without  wires. 


Into  the  brain  of  this  primitive  man  you  could  not  possibly 
force  the  faintest  conception  as  to  what  a modern  city  means. 
You  could  not  talk  to  him  of  iron,  for  he  never  saw  iron  to  know 
what  it  was.  You  could  not  talk  to  him  about  building,  for  he 
never  saw  a tool  of  any  kind.  A sharp  stick,  hardened  in  the  fire, 
used  to  stab  a weak  animal  of  a semi-human  enemy,  a piece  of 
stone  accidentally  sharpened  by  Nature,  fastened  to  the  end  of  a 
club  by  the  sinews  of  an  animal — such  were  all  the  tools  that 
he  knew. 

Yet  in  the  brain  of  that  primitive  man  with  his  low  fore- 
head, his  high  ears,  his  projecting  jaw  and  all  his  brutality,  there 
was  the  spark  to  which  we  owe  the  great  city  of  today,  every 
achievement  of  the  human  race,  that  has  slowly  risen  during  a 
quarter  of  a million  years  from  this  ape-man's  condition  to  our 
own,  and  that  in  other  millions  of  years  to  come  is  destined  to 
rise  to  heights  of  which  we  have  not  the  faintest  conception. 

As  you  look  upon  the  ape-man  of  a quarter  of  a million  years 
ago  looking  at  the  city  he  cannot  understand,  remember  that  the 
day  will  come  on  this  earth  when  one  of  our.  day  would  look  at 
REAL  civilization  and  REAL  accomplishment  hopeless  and  puz- 
zled as  this  man-ape  looking  at  our  modern  city. 

In  one  cave  on  the  hillside,  high  up,  there  lived  a half-man 
family.  A man  and  a.  woman,  with  an  untanned  skin  thrown 
around  her  shoulders,  the  hide  of  some  wolf  or  some  other  animal, 
sat  on  a pile  of  branches.  Around  them  were  children,  one  for 
every  year,  except  here  and  there  one  year's  child  might  be  miss- 
ing— -stolen  and  eaten  by  the  man  living  in  the  next  cave. 

A wild,  dreadful  group  was  this  ‘'human  family,"  with  huge 
jaws,  big  teeth,  red  hair  falling  down  over  the  eyes  and  covering 
nearly  the  whole  body. 

The  man  and  woman  look  out,  and  below  in  the  valley  they 
see  a mammoth  go  by,  a monster  elephant  of  the  olden  days,  with 
tusks  twenty  feet  long,  curling  up  over  his  head,  a huge  trunk, 


6 The  Religion  of  a Socialist 

enormous  feet  which  mean  death  to  everything  in  its  path. 

In  that  great  hulk  there  is  meat  for  a whole  winter,  meat  to 
keep  the  savage  man  and  his  wife  and  children  happy,  fat  and 
safe.  And  the  mammoth  goes  by  in  safety.  No  SINGLE  ANI- 
MAL can  harm  him.  He  scorns  the  individual  cave  man,  and  all 
scattered  animals. 

The  man  in  his  cave  must  be  content  to  capture  and  eat  the 
smaller  animals,  even  insects  and  small  snakes,  when  nothing 
, better  can  be  had.  But  in  time  the  idea  of  CO-OPERATION,  the 
thought  that  it  might  perhaps  be  well  to  work  together,  the  idea 
which  changed  man  gradually  from  an  animal  to  a man,  wakes 
up  in  the  different  caves  along  that  valley. 

Two  of  these  savage  men  get  together,  and  three  and  four, 
^and  twenty.  Instead  of  trying  to  murder  each  other,  instead  of 
stealing  and  eating  each  other's  children,  they  decide  that  they 
will  combine,  AND  GET  THE  MAMMOTH. 

With  pieces  of  sharp  stick,  with  their  bare  fingers  and  bleed- 
ing nails,  they  dig  a hole  in  the  ground,  spending  weeks  at  the 
work.  They  cover  the  hole  with  branches  and  with  leaves.  By 
and  by  the  mammoth  comes  that  way.  He  glances  with  contempt 
at  the  individual  monkey-man  leaping  to  one  side  before  him.  But 
- when  the  twenty  or  fifty  UNITED  savage  creatures  begin  pelting 
him  with  sharp  stones,  frighting  him  with  hideous  yells  and 
whistling,  the  mammoth  hastens  his  pace,  forgets  his  caution, 
moves  slowly  to  his  doom,  and  CRASHES  INTO  THE  DEEP 
NARROW  HOLE  DUG  BY  CO-OPERATION. 

When  the  monkey-men,  standing  around  the  deep  and  narrow 
hole,  look  down  upon  the  monstrous,  struggling,  helpless  mam- 
moth, the  first  of  its  kind  to  be  caught  by  co-operation,  they 
look  down  also,  UPON  THE  BASIS  OF  CIVILIZATION,  upon 
REALIZATION  OF  THE  IDEA  THAT  BUILT  THE  MODERN 
CITY,  THAT  FORCE  IN  THE  HUMAN  RACEl  THAT  WILL 
DO  ALL  THE  MATERIAL  WORK  THAT  IS  TO  BE  DONE  BY 
MEN  IN  THE  FUTURE. 

Once  the  cave  men  found  that  with  co-operation  they  could 
kill  a mammoth,  they  began  to  think  more  about  co-operating  and 
less  about  killing  and  eating  each  other. 


1 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist, 

The  big  beasts  that  they  had  slain  by  working  together  sup- 
plied more  than  enough  meat  for  all.  The  women  and  children 
gathered  to  see  the  marvelous  thing.  Cannibalism  went  on 
spasmodically  for  a long  while,  when  it  seemed  to  be  desirable. 
Few  of  us  are  descended  from  any  but  cannibal  races.  And  those 
whose  ancestors  were  not  cannibals  are  the  weakest  of  us;  for 
they  had  not  enough  meat  to  give  their  children  in  winter. 

Soon  co-operation  worked  so  well,  that  groups  of  men  would 
decide  never  to  kill  each  other,  never  to  eat  each  other's  children, 
even  when  they  had  a chance  to  do  so.  All  the  inhabitants  of  a 
valley  would  combine  jbo  kill  animals  together,  and  to  fight  against 
the  inhabitants  of  other  valleys. 

Thus,  through  co-operation,  there  came  the  building  up  of 
villages,  little  groups  of  families  sticking  together  and  fighting 
the  enemy.  Then,  through  wider  co-operation,  there  came  the 
larger  groups  of  human  beings,  and  finally,  what  we  call  nations, 
and  the  system  of  today.  That  is  one  system  in  which  a nation 
combines  to  protect  all  those  within  the  nation,  but  kill,  fight,  and 
murder  those  of  other  nations,  calling  murder  ‘‘war." 


What  the  killing  of  that  old  mammoth  was  to  the  group  of 
cave  dwellers  the  building  of  a great  skyscraper  is  to  the  men 
of  our  day.  No  man,  even  though  he  might  live  for  a thousand 
years,  could  build  a modern  building.  He  could  not  lift  one  of 
the  steel  beams.  If  you  gave  him  all  of  the  material,  he  would 
still  be  helpless.  But  we  combine,  and  we  raise  these  marvelous 
cities,  we  throw  bridges  of  steel  across  the  rivers,  and  tunnels  of 
steel  under  the  rivers.  We  build  engines  that  will  carry  one  thou- 
sand human  beings  more  than  a mile  in  one  minute.  And  we 
stretch  a thin  wire,  a pathway  for  electricity,  and  it  brings  to  us 
a current  that  we  can  use  to  light  our  homes,  to  run  trolley  cars, 
to  electrocute  criminals,  to  carry  telephone  messages,  sing  songs 
on  phonographs,  wash  clothes,  sweep  the  floor — men  co-operating 
have  done  wonders. 


8 The  Religion  of  a Socialist, 

WHAT  IS  CAPITALISM? 

Capitalism  is  a crime. 

It  is  a relic  of  ancient  barbarism  tied  to  the  car  of  Progress. 

It  is  the  despotism  of  the  feudal  age  gilded  with  gold. 

It  is  the  cruelties  of  the  Inquisition  clothed  in  the  respect- 
ability of  the  church  and  veneered  with  a false  civilization. 

Its  enervating  power  has  filled  the  graveyard  of  nations. 

Its  hands  are  reeking  with  the  blood  of  billions  whose  lives 
have  been  sacrificed  on  the  altar  of  its  greed. 

Its  touch  contaminates  its  victim  with  moral  leprosy  and  the 
fumes  of  its  breath  are  as  deadly  as  the  excretions  that  exude 
from  the  Upas  tree. 

It  owns  its  judges  and  its  courts  are  ante-rooms  to  hell. 

It  runs  an  army  and  navy  to  exploit  helpless  human  beings^ 
in  foreign  lands. 

It  pays  the  salaries  of  professors  in  many  universities  and 
its  pliable  tools  pervert  the  truth  and  teach  false  economy. 

It  owns  the  press  and  poisons  the  public  mind. 

It  teaches  commercialism  based  upon  the  inventive  of  the 

hog. 

It  presents  a glittering  temptation  to  our  young  men,  whom 
nature,  education  and  taste  have  equipped  for  noble  callings,  to 
desert  these  callings  and  enter  the  wild  scramble  for  gold. 

Because  of  the  poverty  it  has  produced  it  forces  our  women 
to  labor  in  factories  and  sweatshops  at  starvation  wages,  and, 
when  thrown  out  of  employment,  to  accept  the  wages  of  sin  rather 
than  to  starve. 

It  takes  little  children  out  of  their  homes  and  puts  them  in 
the  department  stores,  the  factories  and  mines,  where  their 
physical  and  mental  development  is  stunted,  their  moral  natures 
perverted,  their  hopes  blighted  and  their  manhood  destroyed. 

Out  of  the  tears,  sufferings  and  anguish  of  oppressed  and 
enslaved  humanity  it  coins  its  golden  profits. 

It  is  heartless,  soulless,  remorseless  and  has  nothing  to  arbi- 
trate. 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist  9 

It  owns  kings,  emperors  and  presidents  and  is  the  sole  arbi- 
trator between  the  peoples  of  all  nations. 

It  controls  the  law-making  bodies,  tramples  upon  constitu- 
tions and  controls  the  power  to  shape  the  destinies  of  nations. 

Capitalism  is  not  capital. 

It  is  the  hellish  system  that  juggles  with  real  capital — the 
land  and  the  tools  of  production — and  diverts  it  from  its  true 
purpose. 

It  defies  the  laws  of  God  and  man. 

It  feeds  upon  the  blood  of  humanity. 

In  it  is  summed  up  all  the  crimes  of  all  the  world  since  the 
morning  stars  sang  together. 

It  has  filled  the  earth  with  desolation  and  horror. 

It  is  a thousand  times  wickeder  than  the  slave  markets  of 
the  past. 

It  is  the  destroyer  of  civilization  and  the  executioner  of 
moral  progress. 

It  is  ''death  on  a white  horse  and  hell  following  after.'’ 


TEN  BILLIONS  UNDER  THE  CONTROL  OF  MORGAN, 
COLOSSUS  OF  WALL  STREET. 

Bent  to  the  imperious  will  of  John  Pierpont  Morgan,  when 
he  was  most  active  in  financial  affairs,  were  the  ten  billions  of 
incorporated  capital  represented  in  the  following  list.  His  word 
was  law -to  the  interlocking  directorate  at  the  head  of  their 
affairs.  It  represented  a financial  power  probably  never  before 
held  by  a human  being : 

Life  Insurance  Companies. 


Assets. 

Equitable  Life  Assurance  Society $ 462,000,000 

New  York  Life  Insurance  Co 557,000,000 


$1,019,000,000 


10 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist 


Banks  and  Trust  Companies. 

R»esou.rces 

First  National  Bank $139,600,000 

National  Bank  of  Commerce  226,500,000 

Mercantile  Trust  Company 68,475,000 

Equitable  Trust  Company  63,800,000 

Guaranty  Trust  Company  , 88,960,000 

Astor  Trust  Company  15,200,000 

Bankers^  Trust  Company  53j900,000 

Chase  National  Bank  107,280,000 

Mechanics’  National  Bank  51,360,000 

National  Copper  Bank  40,300,000 

Liberty  National  Bank  24,700,000 

Fifth  Avenue  Trust  Company 19,100,000 

Standard  Trust  Company  18,450,000 

$917,625,000 

Industrials. 

Stocks.  Bonds. 

U.  S.  Steel  Corporation $ 868,809,000  $ 593,231,000 

Haggin-Morgan  Peruvian  Copper  Mines  25,000,000 

Un.  Dry  Goods  Co 51,000,000 

International  Harvester  Co 120,000,000 

$1,064, 809,00(f  $ 593,231,000 

1,064,809,000 

$1,658,040,000 

Railroad  and  Transportation  Companies. 


Stocks. 

Southern  Railway  $ 179,900,000  $ 

International  Mercantile  Marine 120,000,000 

Northern  Pacific  247,905,000 

Great  Northern  275,129,000 

Reading  Co  140,000,000 

Central  R.  R.  of  N.  J 27,436,000 

Lehigh  Valley  R.  R 40,441,000 

N.  Y.,  N.  H.  and  H 100,000,000 

Boston  and  Maine  31,394,000 

Hocking  Valley  Ry 26,000,000 

Chicago  G.  W.  R.  R 57,015,000 

N.  Y.,  0.  & W.  R.  R 58,113,000  ^ 

Hudson  & Manhattan  R.  R 50,000,000 


Bonds. 

228.701.000 

72.684.000 

282.499.000 

97.955.000 

106.654.000 

52.851.000 

81.639.000 

56.849.000 

30.373.000 

19.912.000 
28,000,000 

27.173.000 

57.920.000 


$1,353,333,000  $ 1,143,210,000 
1,353,333,000 


$2,496,543,000 


11 


^he  Religion  of  a Socialist. 

Miscellaneous  Companies. 

Anglo-American  Nitrate  Syndicate  in  Chili 

North  American  Company  % . 

Recapitulation. 

Railroads,  etc  

Industrials  

Banks,  etc  

Life  Insurance  Companies 

Miscellaneous  Companies  

Grand  total  

Transportation  Companies. 


Stocks. 

N.  Y.  Cent.  & Hudson  River  R.  R $ 250,000,000 

Pullman  Co 100,000,000 

Lake  Shore  & Michigan  South.  R.  R. . . 50,000,000 

Michigan  Central  R.  R 18,700,000 

N.  Y.  & H.  R.  R.  Co 10,000,000 

N.  Y.  & N.  R.  R.  Co 6,500,000 

Rhode  Island  Co  5,381,000 

Rutland  R.  R.  Co 9,200,000 

West  Shore  R.  R.  Co..; 10,000,000 

Atchison,  Topeka  & Santa  Fe  R.  R. . . . 381,000,000 

N.  Y.,  Susquehanna  & Western  R.  R..  26,000,000 

Interborough  Metropolitan  Co  155,000,000 


$1,021,781,000 

Stocks  as  above  

Total  

Miscellaneous  Companies. 

Stocks. 

American  Telephone  & Telegraph  Co. . $ 300,000,000 
Morgail-Guggenheim  Alaska  Syndicate, 

about  

Morgan,  City  Bank,  Kuhn-Loeb  Chi- 


nese Syndicate,  about. 

General  Electric  Co  80,000,000 

Mexican  Tel.  Co 5,000,000 

Adams  Express  Co 12,000,000 

Republic  of  Honduras  loan 


Republic  of  Panama  (investments) . . . 

$397,000,000 


12.500.000 

29.779.000 

42.279.000 

2.496.543.000 

1.658.040.000 

917.625.000 
1,019,000,000 

42.279.000 

6.133.487.000 

Bonds. 

243.414.000 

135.400.000 

36.000. 000 

12.000. 000 
5,200,000 

11.400.000 

50.000. 000 

315.400.000 

15.600.000 

72.000. 000 

896.414.000 

1.021.781.000 

1.918.195.000 

Bonds. 

214.000. 000 

25.000. 000 

10.000. 000 

14.900.000 

36.000. 000 

12.000. 000 
8,000,000 

319.900.000 

397.000. 000 


Stocks  as  above 
Total  


$ 716,900,000 


12 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist 


Recapitulation. 

Transportation  companies  $ 1,918,195,000 

Miscellaneous  716,900,000 


Total  affiliated  interests  $ 2,635,095,000 

The  One-Man  Power. 

Morgan^s  own  banks  $ 1,000,000,000 

Morgan’s  banking  interests  6,133,487,000 

Morgan’s  affiliated  companies  2,635,095,000 

Morgan’s  partners  500,000,000 


Grand  total  $10,268,582,000 


THE  TARIFF. 

The  real  issue  in  the  country  is  not  the  tariff,  for  it  is  a 
significant  fact  that  in  England  and  elsewhere  there  is  no  tariff, 
and  they  are  as  bad  off  or  worse.  The  real  issue  is,  ‘'Where  do 
the  profits  go?''  To  the  government,  or  to  Morgan,  the  Rocke- 
fellers, the  Goulds,  the  Guggenheims,  tho  Astors,  the  Armours, 
etc.,  any  of  whom  could  loan  our  government  money.  A private 
trust  is  a bad  thing,  public  monopoly  a good  thing.  If  the  cities, 
states  and  national  government  received  the  profits  of  the  cor- 
porations the  people  collectively  would  become  rich  and  taxes  fall 
to  zero.  While  corporation  stocks  are  held  in  other  than  equal 
amounts  we  will  have  the  trust.  Why  not,  therefore,  publicly  own 
all  land  and  make  things  for  use  instead  of  profit,  except  one  or 
two  per  cent  for  warehousing  and  distribution?  Men  and  women 
would  get  what  they  produce,  not  15  per  cent,  as  they  do  now, 
and  wage  slavery  would  cease. 

Every  honest  workman  has  an  inherent  right  to  the  full 
product  of  his  work.  He  invests  his  life  and  the  lives  of  his  wife 
and  children  in  it,  but  under  the  present  industrial  system  he 
never  receives  a full  return  on  the  investment.  There  is  always 
an  unpaid  surplus  which  constffutes  a moral  claim  against  his 
employer.  The  wage  which  he  gets  for  any  particular  day's  work 
is  not  equivalent  to  a quit  claim  deed  to  his  employer,  because  the 
earning  power  of  that  day's  work  does  not  end  with  the  day 
itself.  The  workman  has  put  into  it  personal  values  of  Intel- 


13 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist 

ligence,  skill  and  industry  which  continue  with  more  or  less  per- 
manency long  after  the  sun  sets  upon  the  actual  toil  expended  in 
the  production  of  it. 

The  Conflict  Between  Capital  and  Labor. 

The  constantly  increasing  tendency  of  organized  labor  to 
array  itself  against  organized  capital  is  becoming  very  familiar 
to  us.  On  every  hand,  however,  we  hear  diversity  of  opinion  as 
to  the  cause.  Too  frequently  wholesale  condemnation  of  the  labor 
unit  or  of  the  capital  unit,  according  as  the  speaker's  sympathies 
lie.  The  labor  partisan  heaps  malediction  upon  the  head  of  capi- 
tal— blindly,  unreasonably,  hatefully  staining  the  hands  of  capi- 
tal with  all  the  ‘‘heartaches  and  thousand  natural  shocks  that 
man  is  heir  to."  The  labor  organizer  makes  his  appeal  directly  to 
ignorance,  fear  and  superstition  and  germinates  in  this  fertile 
ground  distrust  of  all  institutions  with  which  capital  may  be  in 
any  way  connected.  He  will  confess  openly  that  he  is  forced  to 
appeal  to  passions  in  order  to  induce  labor  to  unite.  Obviously 
union  on  such  a basis  must  be  full  of  danger. 

Capital,  too,  arrogant  with  success  and  blind  with  the  pur- 
suit of  greater  success,  damns  the  laborer  for  a savage  who  would 
shake  the  foundations  of  society  if  he  could.  It  interprets  the 
strike,  not  as  the  protest  of  a man  and  a woman  who  feel  that 
their  labors  have  earned  a larger  and  a fairer  share  of  the  bene- 
fits of  new  civilization  for  themselves  and  their  children;  it  sees 
a brute  and  his  mate  and  their  cubs  who,  enraged  by  the  agi- 
tator's taunts,  dare  snarl  for  more  and  more. 

This  is  a grave  sickness  that  has  come  upon  our  state,  but 
the  restlessness  it  causes  is  legitimate.  What  is  called  the  upper 
classes  of  society  through  brilliant,  persistent  research  and  indus- 
try have  attained  an  outlook  on  life  far  broader  than  a hundred, 
or  even  fifty  years  ago.  Education,  science,  literature,  art — 
everything — have  been  widened  and  explored  and  turned  to  use 
as  in  no  former  age.  Accruing  benefits  have  been  divided  gen- 
erously among  the  comfortably  well-off.  The  moderately  suc- 
cessful man  of  today  commands  for  himself  and  his  family  priv- 
ileges absolutely  unheard  of  to  the  man  of  corresponding  station 


14 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist. 

fifty  years  ago.  He  is  entertained  by  drama  and  music  which 
he  could  not  have  afforded  in  another  age.  Printing  and  pub- 
lishing have  placed  in  his  hands  general  and  special  literature 
which,  if  accessible  at  all,  have  been  hitherto  luxuries  of  the  very 
rich.  The  automobile,  together  with  cheap,  rapid  land  and  water 
transportation,  have  lengthened  the  radius  of  his  circle  beyond 
limits  ever  dreamed  of  by  his  grandfather.  He  may  visit  this  or 
that  part  of  his  country  or  even  travel  abroad  at  comparatively 
small  cost. 

So  we  might  go  on  to  almost  any  length  in  bare  enumeration 
of  the  advantages  and  new  lines  of  endeavor  which,  owing  to  the 
marvelous  activity  of  the  twentieth  century,  have  come  within 
the  scope  of  the  small  capitalist.  However  great  the  share  of 
higher  civilization  has  fallen  to  the  lot  of  the  moderately  well-to- 
do  man,  advantages  are  correspondingly  great  to  him  of  larger 
fortune.  Going  to  the  top  of  the  scale,  our  millionaire  is  limited 
only  by  his  capacity  to  grasp  and  to  enjoy. 

In  the  face  of  this  great  light  of  civilization  which  we  have 
kindled,  whose  rays  filter  down  through  the  classes  to  warm  apd 
brighten  their  lives,  can  we  in  fairness  draw  a screen  about  the 
home  of  the  laborer?  Bear  in  mind  the  nature  of  his  work  and 
remember  that  he  cannot  afford  the  pleasures  to  be  bought  with 
money.  Practically  all  he  can  earn  goes  for  bare  necessities; 
there  is  little  left  when  those  things  are  purchased  without  which 
he  cannot  live.  Can  we  not  arrange  so  that  a few  more  of  the 
rays  which  he  has  helped  to  kindle  shall  reach  him?  We  do  not 
ask  for  our  laborer  the  identical  comforts  which  our  middle  class 
worker  can  afford.  A little  more  liberal  wage,  where  it  can  be 
paid,  a few  minutes  less  to  his  per-diem  hours  of  toil,  a few  more 
hours  each  week  for  relaxation  and  rest.  It  may  be  that,  to  him, 
such  small  concessions  will  spell  the  difference  between  unrest 
and  rest. 

If  the  abuses  of  monopoly  and  discrimination  cannot  be  re- 
strained, if  the  concentration  of  power  made  possible  by  such 
abuses  continues  and  increases,  and  it  is  made  manifest  that 
under  the  system  of  individualism  and  private  property,  the 
tyranny  of  oppression  of  an  oligarchy  of  wealth  cannot  be  avoided, 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist.  15 

then  Socialism  will  triumph,  and  the  institution  of  private  prop- 
erty will  perish. 

Leslie  M.  Shaw,  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  under  Roosevelt,, 
in  his  address  to  the  students  of  Chicago  University  on  March  1,. 
1907,  said: 

''When  our  manufacturers  grow  bigger  than  the  United 
States  then  there  will  be  a war,  the  bloodiest  war  in  the  history 
of  mankind.  The  time  is  coming  when  the  manufactories  will 
outgrow  the  country  and  men  by  the  hundreds  of  thousands  will 
be  turned  out  of  the  factories.  That  in  itself  is  not  so  bad,  but 
when  we  realize  that  we  pay  out  in  wages  as  much  as  all  the  rest 
of  the  world  put  together  we  begin  to  see  the  seriousness  of  the 
situation. 

"The  factories  are  multiplying  faster  than  our  trade  and  we 
will  shortly  have  a surplus,  with  no  one  abroad  to  buy  and  with* 
no  one  at  home  to  absorb  it,  because  the  laborers  have  not  been 
paid  enough  to  buy  back  what  they  have  produced. 

"What  will  happen  then  ? Why,  these  men  will  be  turned  out 
of  the  factories,  thousands  of  them,  hundreds  of  thousands.  They 
will  find  themselves  without  food.  Then  will  come  the  great 
danger  to  the  country,  for  these  men  will  be  hard  to  deal  with. 
The  last  century  was  the  worst  in  the  world's  history  for  wars 
in  the  world.  The  next  war  will  be  a war  for  markets  and  all 
the  nations  in  the  world  will  be  in  the  fight*  as  they  are  all  after 
the  same  markets  for  the  surplus  of  their  factories." 

Lincoln  on  Labor. 

Possibly  no  other  man  had  so  deeply  a feeling  of  sympathy 
for  the  working  people  as  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  it  is  always  in- 
teresting to  read  what  he  said  at  different  times  on  the  relation 
of  capital  and  labor.  A few  quotations  are  given  below: 

"Thank  God,  we  have  a system  of  labor  where  there  can  be 
a strike.  Whatever  the  pressure,  there  is  a point  where  the  men 
may  stop. — Speech  at  Hartford,  1860,  referring  to  the  New  ^Eng- 
land Shoeivorkers*  great  strike. 

"I  am  glad  to  see  that  a system  of  labor  prevails  in  New 
England  under  which  the  laborers  can  strike  when  they  want 
to,  . . . I like  the  system  which  lets  a man  quit  when  he  wants 


16 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist, 

to  and  wish  it  might  prevail  everywhere/' — Speech  in  New 
Haven,  Conn.,  March  6,  i860. 

‘‘I  hold  that  while  a man  exists  it  is  his  duty  to  improve,  not 
only  his  own  condition,  but  to  assist  in  ameliorating  the  condition 
of  mankind." — Speech  at  Cincinnati,  0.,  February  12,  1861. 

Approaching — The  World's  Greatest  Crisis. 

Lincoln,  America's  greatest  statesman,  once  said.  ‘T  see  a 
great  crisis  in  the  future,  for  this  continent  shall  be  in  the  hands 
of  the  few."  Readers,  do  you  know  that  within  the  next  twenty 
years,  mankind  will  be  confronted  by  the  greatest  crisis  recorded 
in  the  world's  history?  Mankind  will  be  tried  for  its  life,  by  an 
inevitable  supreme  power  known  to  science  as  the  unavoidable 
law  of  evolution.  The  question  is: 

Is  the  human  race  fit  for  a higher  civilization? 

If  not,  then  it  must  decay. 

The  supreme  evolutionary  law  is:  Birth  . . . Growth  . . . 
Decay  . . . and  Death.  If  civilization  has  reached  the  end  of  its 
growth  then  it  must  decay. 

Note — This  law  applies  to  all  matter,  plants  and  animals,  in 
fact,  to  the  universe  itself.  Only  science  is  able  to  modify  its 
course. 

The  social  evolution  of  the  human  race  is: 

Savagery,  Tribism,  Barbarism, 

Slavery,  Freedom,^  Civilization, 

Decay,  Downfall. 

Study  the  above  illustration.  The  beginning  of  the  human 
race  is  in  savagery,  which  gradually  grows  into  large  families  or 
tribes ; these  grow  into  numbers  and  become  warriors ; not  know- 
ing how  to  make  their  living,  they  invade  and  plunder  other  na- 
tions. This  stage  is  known  as  barbarism.  Out  of  barbarism 
grows  slavery.  Slavery  outgrows  its  usefulness  and  freedom  is 
proclaimed. 

''We  boast  of  having  liberated  4,000,000  of  slaves.  Truly 
we  have  stricken  the  shackles  from  the  former  bondsman  and 
brought  all  laborers  to  a common  level,  but  not  so  much  so  by 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist  Vt 

elevating  the  former  as  by  practically  reducing  the  whole  work- 
ing population  to  state  of  serfdom/' — Horace  Greeley. 

‘‘When  Adam  delved  and  Eve  span, 

Who  was  then  the  gentleman?^’ 

God  gave  to  mankind  the  earth,  which  was  a common 
heritage.  ‘‘I  have  given  you  every  herb  bearing  seed  upon  the 
earth,  and  all  trees  that  have  in  themselves  seed  of  their  oWn 
kind  to  be  your  meat,  and  all  the  beasts  of  the  earth  and  to  every 
fowl  of  the  air  and  to  all  that  move  upon  the  earth  wherein  there 
is  life  that  they  may  have  to  feed  upon." — (Gen.  first  chapter) 

Blackstone,  referring  to  this  grant,-  writes : “That  is  the 

only  true  and  solid  foundation  of  man's  dominion  over  external 
things.  The  earth,  therefore,  and  all  things  therein  are  the  gen- 
eral property  of  mankind." 

At  the  present  it  is  estimated  that  over  $100,000,000 
is  annually  spent  in  this  country  alone  on  advertising,  all  of  which 
is  needless  and  wasteful.  Take  for  instance  the  case  of  Mennens 
Talcum  Powder.  It  is  not  a secret  preparation;  every  druggist 
knows  the  formula;  any  pharmacist  can  put  it  up  in  as  satis- 
factory a manner;  the  material  is  not  expensive.  Others  were 
manufacturing  it  and  selling  it  when  Mennen  died  a millionaire, 
and  he  acquired  his  vast  fortune  simply  through  advertising. 
One  page  in  the  Ladies*  Home  Journal  is  said  to  cost  $6,000 
gross  for  a single,  insertion.  Think  of  the  starving  men,  women 
and  children  whom  that  sum  would  relieve.  What  good  accrues 
to  the  nation  at  large  from  such  an  expenditure? 

From  an  economic  point  of  view  no  more  damnable  error  can 
be  conceived  than  that  of  teaching  the  poor  to  be  content  with 
their  lot.  To  be  satisfied  with  coarsest  food,  with  unhealthy  ten- 
. ements,  with  shabby  clothes,  with  hobnailed  boots,  with  cheap 
. furniture  and  bare  walls,  to  forego  the  pleasures  of  books  and 
paintings  and  music  in  their  homes,  to  stifie  the  legitimate  aspir- 
ations of  talent,  never  to  penetrate  beyond  the  smoke  of  factories 
..  into  God's  pure  air,  noriisten  to  the  wondrous  melodies  of  feath- 
er^ songsters  in  the  brake  nor  watch  the  changing  pigments  of 
His  brush  on  the  floral  canvas  of  tfie  fields,  but  always  go  on 
starving  from  the  morning  until  night  with  no  prospect  of  com- 


18 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist 

fort  for  the  evening  of  life — surely  it  is  the  veriest  mockery  to 
preach  contentment  to  the  aged  v^orker  who  finds  younger  men 
crowding  him  out  as  the  years  steal  his  strength  away.  The  time 
comes  to  him  when  he  is  thrown  aside  like  a worn-out  tool.  His 
usefulness  in  the  industrial  conflict  has  been  a constantly  dimin- 
ishing factor.  The  future  looms  up  dark  and  forbidding  and  he 
grows  tremulous  with  despair.  Every  new  advance  in  civiliza- 
tion, every  forward  movement  in  knowledge  and  culture  and 
freedom  has  been  achieved  by  the  organized  discontent  of  men 
or  by  patient  bravery  of  some  great  soul  breaking  through  the 
inertia  of  conservatism  and  blazing  new  pathways  for  humanity. 

Child  Labor. 

The  ministers  in  hundreds  of  churches  in  New  York  City 
recently  preached  against  child  labor — ministers  everywhere 
should  do  the  same,  and  it  is  hoped  their  sermons  will  be  power- 
ful^ as  savage  in  denunciation  as  words  can  make  them.  Would 
that  there  might  stand,  in  every  pulpit  beside  the  preacher,  one 
half-starved,  worked-out,  white-faced,  hollow-chested  victim  of 
the  Child  Labor  system.  The  sight  of  such  a child  would  do  more 
to  arouse  the  people  than  any  hundred  sermons  or  editorials. 

Men  feel  and  hate  the  wrongs  that  they  see.  It  is  hard  for 
them  to  imagine  the  unseen. 

The  preacher  who  is  sincere,  who  believes  wTiat  he  preaches, 
and  FEELS  what  he  believes,  will  preach  on  child  labor,  as  he 
could  preach  on  nothing  else.  For  that  which  is  done  to  the 
feeblest  child,  according  to  the  Bible's  teaching,  is  done  to  Christ 
himself — and  the  sufferings  that  child  labor  inflicts  upon  chil- 
dren equal  in  horror  and  exceed  by  many  years  in  length  of  time 
the  suffering  inflicted  upon  the  founder  of  Christianity. 

Under  the  child  labor  system  a few  men  get  rich,  the  public 
buys  products  for  a cheaper  price — DON'T  FORGET  THAT 
FEATURE  OF  THE  SYSTEM— and  the  children  are  used  up  as 
though  they  were  fuel  to  be  shoveled  living  into  the  furnace  of 
mill,  factory,  sweatshop  or  cannery,  AND  COME  OUT  BURNED 
TO  ASHES. 

Lack  of  sleep,  lack  of  air,  lack  of  sunshine,  long,  dreary  years 


19 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist, 

without  play  or  any  happiness,  hard  blows  for  the  poor,  weak, 
half-starved  creature  that  dozes  at  its  task,  a cheap  and  early 
grave  for  tens  of  thousands,  and  life  stunted  for  all — such  are 
features  of^the  child-labor  system. 

The  Indian  buried  his  tomahawk  in  a man's  brain,  scalped 
him,  and  that  was  the  end.  Or  the  victim  was  caught  alive,  tor- 
tured for  a while,  and  THAT  was  the  end. 

Is  not  the  cruelty  that  tortures  the  child  as  long  as  it  can 
be  kept  alive  infinitely  more  shameful,  criminal  and  horrible? 

You  have  read  of  the  Indians  that  captured  a mother  and 
her  young  child,  and  tortured  the  mother  by  compelling  her  to 
witness  the  torture  of  her  child.  The  mother  was  tied  to  a tree, 
close  to  the  child,  and  was  compelled  to  look  on  while  the  child 
was  put  to  death  by  slow  agony. 

Horrible,  you  say?  Too  horrible  to  be  believed;  human 
ferocity  could  not  be  guilty  of  such  a crime. 

Why  do  you  say  so?  Worse  things  are  done  in  thousands  of 
mills  and  actories  and  sweatshops  all  over  this  country — and 
who  cares  ? 

You  would  run  miles  and  risk  your  life  to  help  that  wretched 
mother  tied  and  watching  her  child  suffer  torture.  How  far  will 
you  run,  how  earnestly  will  you  protest,  how  independently  will 
you  vote  to  save  THOUSANDS  OF  MOTHERS  UNDERGOING 
AN  AGONY  AS  GREAT?  There  is  less  suffering  for  one 
mother  watching  her  child  tortured  to  death  in  a few  hours,  at 
most,  than  for  thousands  of  mothers  that  must  watch  their  chil- 
dren slowly  dying  under  the  child-labor  system. 

The  modern  mother  of  the  child-labor  victim  is  not  tied  to  a 
tree,  with  red  Indians  howling  around  her.  But  she  is  tied  by 
poverty,  and  as  helpless  as  though  tied  with  ropes. 

You  can  imagine  partly  how  the  woman,  caught  by  Indians, 
felt  as  she  strained  at  the  cords  that  held  her  to  the  tree.  You 
can  imagine  her  shrieks,  her  pitiful  calling  upon  God  for  help, 
as  she  watched  those  Indians  put  red  hot  splinters  into  her  child's 
flesh.  You  FEEL  that.  Can  you  not  also  feel  for  the  mother 
that  must  drag  her  feeble  child  from  bed  at  five  in  the  morning 
"To  go  to  work"?  Can  you  not  feel  for  the  mothers  that,  long 


20 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist 

after  dark,  see  their  children  come  home  from  the  mill  and  sink 
into  heavy  sleep,  too  much  exhausted  even  to  eat  the  miserable 
food  that  is  ready  for  them?  Can  you  not  feel  for  the  mother 
painfully  dragging  herself  to  work,  children  tired  and  white- 
faced, walking  to  the  mill  beside  her,  a child  unborn,  and  almost 
ready  to  be  delivered,  moving  within  her?  Is  not  that  torture, 
to  conquer  nature's  plea  for  rest,  to  send  one  child  after  another 
to  the  mill  and  to  the  grave,  and  to  know  that  the  child  unborn 
must  go  the  same  road? 

We  are  not  better  than  savages,  but  worse;  for  the  Indian 
was  ignorant  and  had  not  enjoyed  /‘the  blessed  advantages  of 
nineteen  hundred  years  of  Christian  teaching."  And  the  Indian 
did  not  torture  those  of  his  own  tribe. 

In  England  they  found  that  there  was  not  enougli  full-sized 
men  to  supply  even  England's  small  army.  Man  after  man  was 
measured  and  found  hollow-chested  and  TOO  SMALL. 

ONE  GENERATION  OF  CHILD  LABOR,  following  me- 
chanical inventions  that  made  child  labor  profitable,  had'brought 
about  this  change  in  England's  men.  The  women  had  also  de- 
generated. Many  of  them  lived  on  tea,  gin  and  bread,  and  bore 
babies  called  “wasters,"  that  no  science  could  keep  alive  more 
than  a few  days  after  birth.  They,  too,  testified  to  GREAT  Brit- 
ain's child  labor  system,  and  the  system  of  working  women,  which 
included  fastening  a chain  to  the  working  woman's  neck,  passing 
it  between  her  legs,  and  making  her — thus  harnessed — crawl  on 
her  hands  and  knees,  pulling  small  coal  cars  through  the  lowest 
galleries  in  the  mines.  Those  women  had  their  knees  and  the 
palms  of  their  hands  as  hard  as  a cow's  hoof.  Do  you  wonder 
that  there  was  degeneration  among  the  poor  of  England? 

But  England  has  made  the  fight  that  we  have  not  made.  The 
brutality  inflicted  on  children  in  this  country  would  not  be  per- 
mitted in  England. 

We  have  not  seen  the  full  results  as  yet,  for  we  have  been 
burning  up  children  so  fast  that  they  have  not  lived  to  make  de- 
generate men  and  women,  and  immigration  brings  constant  fresh 
supplies. 

But  we  shall  see  the  results — the  horrible  results — if  the 


21 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist. 

country  proves  so  heartless  as  to  make  no  efficient  protest  against 
the  torturing  of  the  child  in  sight  of  the  mother — AND  OF  THE 
VOTER. 

EVERY  Sunday  should  be  child  labor  Sunday  in  every 
church,  temple,  legislature,  and  home,  until  child  labor  shall  cease 
in  this  country. 

Child  labor  is  employed  simply  because  it  is  cheap  and  un- 
resisting. There  is  never  any  danger  of  the  child  workers  organ- 
izing either  among  themselves  or  as  a trade  union. 

‘‘Do  you  hear  the  children  weeping,  0,  my  brothers? 

Ere  the  sorrows  come  with  years. 

They  are  leaning  their  young  heads  against  their  mothers. 

And  that  cannot  stop  their  tears. 

The  young  lambs  are  bleating  in  the  meadows. 

The  young  birds  are  chirping  in  the  nest. 

The  young  fawns  are  playing  with  the  shadows 

And  the  young  flowers  are  blooming  toward  the  west. 

But  the  young,  yoiing  children,  0,  my  brothers. 

They  are  weeping  bitterly; 

They  are  weeping  in  the  play-time  of  the  others. 

In  the  country  of  the  free.” 

Low  wages  and  the  high  cost  of  living  force  working  class 
parents  to  send  their  children  to  mills  and  shops  to  piece  out  the 
wages  of  the  father.  Under  the  law  you  cannot  overwork  young 
horses,  and  you  are  not  permitted  to  work  old  ones  that  are  un- 
derfed, or  which  have  sores  made  by  harness.  But  under  the  law 
capitalists  may  cut  off  fingers  and  whole  limbs  of  young  and 
old  working  people  without  fear  of  legal  punshment.  The  law 
encourages  them  to  starve  any  and  all  of  those  who  strike  for 
better  conditions  for  the  wage-earners. 

The  1900  census  gives  Maryland  over  5,000  children  at  work. 
The  Census  Bfhlletin  of  1905  gives  5,553  under  16  years  at  work 
in  Maryland,  of  which  3,666  were  in  Baltimore.  The  1915  census 
gives  the  number  in  cotton  mills  in  North  Carolina  as  31,231. 
Again  the  census  for  Alabama,  Georgia,  North  Carolina,  30,000 
children  employed  in  southern  cotton  mills.  In  the  coal  breakers 
boys  of  eight,  ten  and  twelve  years  crouch  over  the  chutes,  pick- 
ing out  pieces  of  slate  and  other  refuse  from  the  coal  as  it  rushes 
past  to  the  washers.  Clouds  'of  dust  fill  the  breakers  and  are 


22 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist 

inhaled  by  the  boys,  laying  a foundation  for  asthma  and  miner’s 
consumption,  working  from  6 a.  m.  to  6 p.  m.  for  as  small  wages 
as  50  to  60  cents  a day.  The  coal  is  hard  and  accidents  to  the 
hands  such  as  cuts,  bruises  and  crushed  fingers,  are  common 
among  the  boys.  I wonder  if,  when  people  find  what  they  call  a 
clinker  in  their  coal,  they  know  just  what  that  means.  It  means 
this:  That  one  boy’s  eyes  have  become  dimmed  after  nine  or 

ten  hours’  work;  that  his  fingers  are  bleeding  and  he  has  neg- 
lected to  get  out  the  slate  which  it  is  his  business  to  pick  from 
among  the  coal.  In  other  words,  when  you  find  a clinker  in  your 
grate  or  stove  it  represents  the  utter  exhaustion  of  a boy  from 
8 to  10  to  12  years.  There  are  three  times  as  many  mangled  chil- 
dren as  men  in  the  coal  breakers.  The  Indian  tribes  surpass  us 
in  humanity,  for  in  times  of  danger  they  shield  their  young  with 
their  own  bodies,  while  we  fling  ours  into  perils  three  times 
greater  than  our  own.  This  is  a Christian  nation.  If  proof  is 
needed,  count  your  churches.  To  most  of  these  child  slaves  the 
name  of  Christ  is  no  more  than  a cuss  word.  We  ask  ‘‘What 
would  Christ  do  today,  were  He  here  on  earth?”  “What  would 
Christ  have  thought  of  child  labor?”  Would  He  not  have  taken 
His  scourge  of  cords  and  chased  those  Pharisees  out  of  the  cot- 
ton mills  of  the  south  and  the  mills  of  the  north?  As  it  is  today, 
one  child  in  every  six  is  a burnt  offering  to  the  money  god.  One 
dollar  in  every  six  has  blood  on  it.  We  also  have  a standing  army 
of  fifteen  thousand  dependent  children  in  New  York’s  asylums 
and  institutions. 

Hungry  School  Children. 

E.  J.  Tamblin,  citizen  of  Spokane,  has  got  a right  notion  to 
the  effect  that  children  cannot  do  their  best  work  in  school  on 
empty  stomachs.  A committee  investigated  hunger  in  Spokane 
schools  and  discovered  that  at  least  400  childi-en  leave  home 
each  day  without  food  sufficient  to  bear  them  through  school 
hours,  and  the  city  is  going  to  be  asked  to  establish  luncheons. 

Of  course  Mr.  Tamblin  is  right.  'The  brain  cannot  gnaw  on 
problems  while  the  stomach  is  gnawing  on  its  empty  self.  It  used 
to  be  thought  that  the  brain  wouldn’t  work  while  the  stomach  did, 
but  we  now  understand  that  this  applies  only  in  cases  of  glut- 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist,  23 

tony.  Man  is  pretty  essentially  a creature  of  stomach.  Evolution 
teaches  that  he  had  a stomach  long  before  he  had  either  brain  or 
spine,  and  since  the  circulation  of  blood  has  been  at  all  correctly 
understood,  it  has  been  known  that  all  kinds  of  effort  depend 
largely  upon  that  part  of  the  human  mechanism  which  builds  or 
renews.  Food  surely  has  an  effect  upon  the  disposition  and  men- 
tal vigor,  and  hungry  children  have  no  more  business  in  school 
than  those  Manila  Spaniards  had  before  Dewey's  men  after  that 
luncheon. 


DEPLORABLE  CONDITION  OF  LABORING  WOMEN. 


This  Fact  Is  Being  Brought  to  Light  in  New  York  Investiga- 
tion—Fingers  of  Mill  Workers  Roughened  and  Torn 
Until  Blood  Comes. 


(By  C.  H.  Tavenner) 

That  women  work  in  iron  factories  and  are  employed  in 
other  capacities  in  the  great  factories  of  this  country  under  con- 
ditions that  the  people  of  the  towns  would  not  believe  possible,  is 
being  developed  by  the  New  York  state  factory  investigating 
commission. 

Abraham  I.  Elkus,  chief  counsel  for  the  commission,  de- 
clares that  in  many  instanc'es  the  investigators  are  finding  in 
the  woolen  mills  women  workers  whose  fingers  are  worn  until 
the  blood  runs  from  picking  knots  out  of  the  cloth,  and  that  in 
one  instance  sick  children  add  to  the  family  income  by  cracking 
with  their  teeth  nuts  for  table  use.  The  report  of  the  commission 
was  so  startling  that  one  New  York  newspaper  was  loath  to  be- 
lieve that  such  conditions  could  exist,  and  employed  expert  inde- 
pendent investigators  to  go  over  the  ground  covered  by  the  fac- 
tory commission.  These  special  investigators  found  that  the 
conditions  in  many  factories  fully  justified  the  commission's 
report.  Both  sets  of  investigators  found  that  many  employes 
in  the  factories  are  miserably  underpaid;  that  they  are  usually 
treated  with  less  consideration  than  the  machines  they  operate; 
that  women  are  doing  the  work  of  men  because  they  can  be  hired 


24  The  Religion  of  a Socialist. 

more  cheaply  ; that  sanitary  conditions  are  abominable,  and  lead 
to  the  breeding  of  disease,  and  that  little  precaution  is  taken  to 
guard  against  fatalities  by  fire. 

In  respect  to  certain  factories  in  Buffalo,  Rochester  and 
Syracuse,  the  testimony  is  simply  damning.  It  shows  that 
women  and  children  are  forced  by  the  "‘speeding  up’’  and  “piece 
work”  systems  to  labor  under  such  high  pressure,  in  order  to 
make  their  living,  that  th*ey  are  mangled  by  the  machines  they 
operate,  and  fall  victifhs  to  disease. 

But  of  the  61,246  workers  in  Buffalo,  30  per  cent  are  women. 
To  these  must  be  added  the  small  boys.  The  health  department 
shows  that  3,821  boys  and  girls  between  the  ages  of  14  and  16 
years  are  at  work.  How  many  more  there  are  no  one  knows. 
Many  work  with  no  certificates  and  others  sell  theirs  to  children 
under  legal  age  after  they  no  longer  need  them.  They  are  quoted 
at  50  cents  each,  and  find  a ready  sale.  Dr.  Arthur  C.  Schaefer, 
chief  of  the  Bureau  of  Child  Hygiene  o^.^  Buffalo,  exhibited  250 
forged  certificates  which  had  been  detected  and  taken  up. 


The  Fourth  Great  Thing. 

Now  we  come  to  the  fourth  great  thing  that  the  woman  does. 
— perhaps  the  greatest  of  all : a child  comes  to  her,  placing  upon 
her  the  responsibility  of  moulding  an^  training  a human  life. 

“Of  course,”  comes  the  protest,  “but  must  the  mother  alone 
do  this?  How  about  the  father?” 

I recently  spoke  to  a steel  worker,  who  told  me  that  he  had 
never  seen  his  baby’s  eyes.  He  was  working  on  the  twelve-hour 
shift — leaving  home  before  six  in  the  morning  and  returning 
after  six  at  night.  When  he  left  home  the  baby  was  asleep, 
when  he  returned  the  child  was  again  in  bed.  As  he  had  worked 
seven  days  each  week  for  nearly  a year  he  had  never  had  an  op- 
portunity of  seeing  his  baby  awake ; he  was  compelled  to  take  his 
wife’s  testimony  as  to  the  color  of  the  child’s  eyes.  The  case  is 
extreme,  you  may  say.  Yes,  it  is.  Still  it  typifies  the  revolution 
that  modern  industry  has  brought  in  the  home,  taking  the  father 
away  for  long  hours  each  day,  and  throwing  upop  the  mother  the 
entire  responsibility  of  child  training. 


25 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist, 

For  it  is  not  only  among  the  working  classes  that  this  condi- 
tion exists.  The  well-to-do  are  also  subject  to  it.  The  average 
business  or  professional  man  leaves  home  immediately  after 
breakfast  and  does  not  return  until  night.  During  the  time  when 
his  children  are  playing  and  learning,  the  breadwinner  is  away 
from  home  providing  the  income  which  makes  possible  play  and 
education.  Perhaps  on  Saturday  afternoons  and  on  Sundays  and 
holidays,  if  nothing  interferes,  this  man  will  see  his  children — in 
some  cases  he  may  even  talk  and  walk  with  them,  securing  their 
sympathy  and  entering  into  their  lives.  But  of  the  constant, 
intimate  contact  which  the  mother  has  with  her  children  the 
average  father  enjoys  no  share. 

Thus  the  transformation  of  the  home, 'the  disappearance  of 
the  many  occupations  which  were  formerly  carried  on  there  and 
the  removal  bf  the  father's  employment  from  a place  adjacent  to 
the  home  to  some  distant  factory  or  office  building  have  placed 
the  duty  of  child  training  upon  the  women  of  the  household. 
Whatever  home  training  a child  receives  is,  therefore,  the  train- 
ing of  the  mother.  She  gives  the  child  his  earliest  impression  of 
the  things  of  this  world.  And  it  is  these  early  impression  that 
ultimately  count.  ‘‘Give  me  a child  until  he  is  seven,  and  I will 
stake  my  reputation  on  his  future,"  is  no  idle  boast.  Whether 
we  are  at  birth  endowed  with  intellectual  powers,  or  whether  our 
mind  is  a blank  upon  which  impressions  create  our  thought  and 
character,  the  impressions  of  the  first  six  or  seven  years  are  the 
impressions  which  stay  with  us  longest. 


EIGHT  MILLION  WOMEN  IN  WAGE-EARNING  ARMY. 


Fifty  Per  Cent  of  These  Workers  in  United  States  Under  21— 
Demand  for  Female  Labor  Is  on  Increase  Because  It  Is 
Cheap  and  Profitable  to  Manufacturer. 


We  have  employed  in  the  different  industries  of  the  United 
States  a wage-earning  army  of  more  than  8,000,000  women,  the 
pumber  being  steadily  on  the  increase.  Fifty  per  cent  of  these 


26  The  Religion  of  a Socialist. 

workers  are  under  21  years  of  age  and  are  therefore  in  need  of 
protection. 

It  is  not  that  it  is  new  for  women  to  labor,  for  they  have 
done  that  always;  but  it  is  that  she  must  now  labor  under  new 
conditions,  in  manufacturing  establishments  where  the  conditions 
of  work  are  quite  different  from  the  home,  the  old  manufactory. 
This  change,  and  the  demand  for  women  in  the  industrial  world, 
has  not  been  because  it  was  best  for  her,  but  because  woman's 
labor  is  cheap  labor  and  therefore  profitable  to  the  manufacturer. 

This  change  has  come,  too,  before  woman  has  been  prepared 
for  industrial  life,  so  that  they  are  forced  to  accept  conditions 
not  conducive  to  their  welfare.  Capital,  too,  has  not  yet  adjusted 
itself  entirely  to  the  equity  of  the  situation,  with  the  result  that 
many  hardships  exist  that  must  be  removed. 

The  lack  of  uniform  laws  governing  the  labor  problem  for 
women  is  one  of  the  chief  causes  of  the  unsettled  status  of  these 
workers.  A few  states  have  good  laws,  but  many  of  our  states 
have  failed  to  recognize  the  economic  value  of  protecting  them, 
using  competition  as  an  excuse  for  not  legislating  protection  and 
humane  treatment. 

Vocational  training  so  that  women  can  enter  the  industrial 
world  as  skilled  workers  is  the  first  requisite,  then  organizations 
among  themselves,  with  legislation  to  protect  them  and  then  fac- 
tory inspection  by  women.  Under  this  latter  head  will  come 
cleaner  morals,  better  health  and  working  conditions.  Men  in- 
spectors are  rather  inclined  to  overlook  many  derelictions,  not 
understanding  women's  needs. 

Twenty-two  states  have  recognized  the  need  of  women  in 
this  work  and  have  placed  women  on  their  staffs  of  factory  in- 
spectors. New  York  has  15,  Pennsylvania  10,  Ohio  8,  Wisconsin 
5,  Minnesota  4,  New  Jersey,  Michigan  and  Illinois  3,  California 
and  Maryland  2,  and  the  remaining  have  12.  In  none  of  these 
states,  however,  are  there  enough  women  inspectors  to  do  all  the 
work  there  needs  to  be  done.  There  should  be  in  every  state  one 
woman  factory  inspector  for  every  25,000  women  employed  in 
the  industries  of  the  state.  This  inspection  should  not  be  limited 
to  factories,  but  should  include  telephone  systems,  restaurants, 


27 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist. 

laundries  and  small  establishments  in  second-class  cities.  In 
these  places  of  business  women  work  fourteen  and  sixteen  hours 
a day  with  no  one  to  champion  their  cause  and  protect  them  from 
imposition. 

Nine-tenths  of  the  sweated  work  of  this  country  is  done  by 
women.  I have  no  wish  to  give  statistics  of  the  wages  in  par- 
ticular trades.  These  are  readily  accessible  to  all.  They  are  sad- 
dening and  horrible.  The  life-blood  of  women  that  should  be 
given -to  the  race  is  being  stitched  into  our  ready-made  clothes, 
is  washed  and  ironed  into  our  linen,  wrought  into  laces,  embroid- 
eries, feathers  and  flowers,  it  is  poured  into  our  adulterated 
foods,  pasted  on  our  match  and  pin  boxes,  and  spent  on  the  toys 
we  buy  for  our  children,  the  china  that  we  use  for  our  foods  and 
the  tins  in  which  we  cook  them  are  damned  with  lead  poison  that 
we  offer  to  women  as  the  reward  of  labor.  It  is  these  wrongs 
that  the  mothers  of  the  race  have  to  think  out  and  alter.  There 
is  no  one  among  us  who  is  guiltless  in  the  matter.  Things  that 
are  continuously  wrong  need  revolutionizing  and  not  patching  up. 
Men  have  all  fields  open  to  them,  which  is  not  true  of  women’s 
work.  Men  have  no  scruples  to  take  women’s  work.  Not  only  do 
men  bake  and  brew,  they  even  knit  and  spin;  they  sell  lace  and 
ribbons;  they  dress  women’s  hair.  What  work  have  they  left 
women?  The  under-paid  drudgery  of  the  home,  the  sweat- 
shop that  men  despise.  But  women  are  growing  tired  of  this 
division.  Woman  is  born  no  different  from  you,  my  brothers, 
except  that  she  vdll  sooner  sacrifice  herself  to  feed  the  children. 
In  industry  she  stands  where  your  fathers  stood  before  they 
learned  to  co-operate.  You,  brothers,  got  every  good  thing  you 
possess  by  standing  together.  Now  I want  to  advise  you  to  help 
you.  Brothers,  we  w'omen  want  to  stand  together  and  we  want 
you  to  help  us.  If  you  won’t  do  it  for  the  sake  of  justice,  do  it 
for  the  sake  of  your  own  bread  and  butter.  Your  only  safety  lies 
where  our  safety  lies — in  equal  pay  for  equal  work.  You  have 
an  opportunity  to  strike  a tremendous  blow  for  freedom,  not  only 
of  working  men,  but  the  freedom  of  working  women.  You  know 
that  the  ballot  is  the  great  weapon  which  the  working  class  can 
use  whenever  that  class  gets  ready  to  use  it.  You  know  also  that 


28 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist 

the  working  class  is  about  to  use  that  weapon  for  its  emancipa- 
tion. Do  you  not  want  your  sister,  mother  and  daughter  to  be 
able  to  use  that  ballot  with  you?  Are  you  going  to  allow  your- 
self to  be  weakened  in  the  great  conflict  by  having  those  so 
closely  allied  with  you  in  the  struggle  deprived  of  a chance  to  aid 
you?  Remember  that  there  are  millions  of  women — daughters 
and  sisters,  wives  and  mothers — who  are  obliged  to  work  and 
slave  in  order  to  live.  ‘ These  are  all  members  of  the.  working  class 
and  have  the  same  interest  as  the  fathers,  husbands,  brothers 
and  sons.  Will  you  deprive  them  longer  by  your  carelessness  and 
inactivity  of  the  privilege  of  participating  in  the  making  of  the 
laws  which  govern  thejr  condition?  The  laws  of  today,  in  a 
great  many  states,  place  women  upon  the  same  basis  politically  as 
mules,  imbeciles  ^nd  criminals.  A mule  cannot  vote  (if  he  could 
he  would  raise  a ruction)  ; an  imbecile  cannot  vote  (supposedly, 
but  a lot  of  them  do)  ; and  criminals  who  are  in  prison  are  denied 
the  right  to  vote.  Do  you  want  your  wife  and  mother  kept  longer 
in  this  class?  No,  I do  not  believe  it.  Give  your  wife,  daughter, 
mother,  sister  a chance  to  stand  with  you  and  win  or  lose  with 
you  in  your  struggle  against  your  oppressors.  Here  are  a few 
of  the  laws  the  enfranchised  women  will  vote  to  have  strickep 
from  the  books : Legal  age  of  marriage  of  young  girls,  as  low  as 
12  years  in  four  states,  13  in  one,  T4  in  nine;  children  working 
nights  in  factories  from  6 p.  m.  to  6 a.  m.;  laws  forbidding  the 
legitimatizing  of  a little  child  by  a subsequent  marriage;  laws 
authorizing  fathers  to  will  away  the  custody  of  unborn  children; 
laws  giving  the  father  the  legal  guardianship  of  the  child;  en- 
titling the  husband  to  the  earnings  of  a wife,  received  in  con- 
nection with  household  duties,  such  as  boarders,  taking  in  wash- 
ing, sewing,  etc. — a New  Jersey  law,  In  many  states  wife  and 
child  desertion  is  not  a crime;  the  joint  earnings  of  a husband 
and  wife  belong  to  the  husband;,  father,  and  not  the  mother, 
entitled  to  the  services  of  children.  The  age  of  consent  is  ex- 
tremely low  in  some  states — ten  years  in  Georgia,  and  twelve  in 
several.  Revoking  a woman's  will  if  she  is  a widow  and  marries 
again ; revoking  the  guardianship  of  a widow  over  her  children 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist  29 

if  she  marries  again ; low  punishment  for  rape,  making  seduction 
a misdemeanor — a breach  of  manners. 

One  of  the  significant  statements  in  the  uninformed  and  mis- 
leading tirade  of  Senator  Tillman  is  that  suffrage  is  coming 
rapidly,  but  in  the  southern  and  eastern  states  there  is  hope  that 
it  may  be  prevented  and  stayed.  Had  Senator  Tillman  been  bet- 
ter informed  in  regard  to  the  activities  of  women  suffragists  in 
South  Carolina,  and  especially  in  Alabama,  Louisiana  and  Texas 
during  the  past  year,  he  would  not  be  so  sure  of  the  backward 
spirit  of  the  south  or  that  it  would  become  a block  to  progress  of 
the  suffragists'  movement.  Personally  I am  looking  for  suffrage 
to  win  in  any  one  of  the  states  of  the  union,  and  it  might  be  that 
South  Carolina  would  be  among  the  first  to  grant  it  to  women. 
It  is  only  a .matter  of  time,  and  that  a short  time,  for  north, 
south,  east  and^'west,  and  the  senator  and  all  who  stand  with  him 
would  better  prepare  for  the  full  enfranchisement  of  the  Ameri- 
can citizen,  regardless  of  sex. 

Two  remarkable  and  significant  victories  have  been  gained 
in  our  country  and  full  enfranchisement  fcfr  women  in  Norway. 
Full  enfranchisement  for  the  women  of  Alaska  and  a slightly 
modified  franchise  in  Illinois  has  added  greatly  to  the  voting 
strength  of  the  womanhood  of  America.  Both  of  these  victories 
are  secured  without  the  necessity  of  state-wide  campaigns  to  win 
the  vote  of  the  men  citizens  at  the  polls.  Were  the  constitution 
of  the  other  states  so  formed  that  this  method  could  be  followed 
in  each  there  would  be  little  difficulty  in  securing  suffrage  in 
every  one.  There  are  few  states  whose  constitution  m^es  it 
possible.  This  is  the  principal  reason  why  it  is  so  much  more 
difficult  to  secure  votes  for  women  in  America  than  in  many 
monarchies  of  Europe. 

INGERSOLL’S  VISION  OF  THE  FUTURE. 

A vision  of  the  future  rises.  I see  a world  where  thrones  have 
crumbled  and  where  kings  are  dust.  The  aristocracy  of  idleness 
has  perished  from  the  earth.  I see  a world  without  a slave. 
Man  at  last  is  free.  Nature  forces  have  by  science  been  enslaved. 
^Lightning  and  light,  wind  and  wave,  frost  and  flame,  and  all  of 


30 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist 

the  secret  subtle  powers  of  the  earth  and  air  are  the  tireless  toil- 
ers for  the  human  race.  I see  a world  at  peace,  endowed  with 
every  form  of  art,  with  music  myriad  voices  thrilled,  while  lips 
are  rich  with  words  of  love  and  truth.  A world  in  which  no  exile 
sighs,  no  prisoner  mourns,  a world  on  which  no  gibbet’s  shadow 
falls,  a world  where  labor  reaps  its  full  reward — where  work  and 
worth  go  hand  in  hand,  where  the  poor  girl  trying  to  win  bread 
with  a needle — the  needle  that  has  been  called  ‘'The  asp  for  the 
breast  of  the  poor” — is  not  driven  to  the  desperate  choice  of 
crime  or  death,  of  suicide  or  shame.  I see  a warld  without  the 
beggar’s  outstretced  palm,  the  miser’s  heartless,  stony  stare,  the 
piteous  wail  of  want,  the  livid  lips  of  lies,  the  cruel  eyes  of  scorn. 
I see  a race  without  disease  of  flesh  or  brain,  shapely  and  fair, 
married  harmony  of  form  and  functions,  and  as  I look,  life 
lengthens^,  joy  deepens,  love  canopies  the  earth,  and  over  all,  in 
the  great  dome,  shines  the  eternal  star  of  human  hope. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  A SOCIALIST. 

Socialism  and  the  Nation. 

Our  party  has  suddenly  attained  tremendous  influence  in 
the  nation,  casting  nearly  1,000,000  votes  for  president — more 
than  doubling  the  vote  four  years  ago.  If  it  were  true^  that  Social- 
ism were  antagonistic  to  religion,  such  a growth  in  its  political 
strength  would  mean  disaster  to  the  moral  future  of  this  nation. 
But  if  it  is  true,  as  I believe  and  have  attempted  to  show  you 
why  I believe  it,  that  Socialism  is  a projection  of  intelligent  mor- 
ality on  the  political  stage,  then  that  vote  is  full  of  hope  for  all 
who  desire  to  see  this  nation  morally  redeemed. 

Does  Socialism  destroy  the  home?  And  is  Socialism  against 
the  flag  ? These  two  questions  make  the  proposition  a moral  one. 
I was  challenged  last  Sunday  night  by  a young  gentleman  who 
professed  himself  as  horrified  because  I had  forsaken  the  gospel 
and  was  meddling  with  politics;  although  my  address  last  Sun- 
day night  dealt  largely  with  so  plain  and  simple  a question  as  the 
eighth  commandment,  “Thou  shalt  not  steal.”  And  destruction 
of  the  home  is  certainly  a moral  question.  Is  it  true  that  the 
increased  Socialist  vote  means  a peril  for  the  home?  Is  it  true 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist, 


31 


that  in  the  first  place  woman  suffrage,  for  which  we  stand,  im- 
perils the  honor  and  purity  of  womanhood;  and  is  it  true  that 
Socialism  and  free  love  are  synonymous? 

That  idiotic  statement,  still  met  with  though  not  so  often  aS' 
formerly,  that  Socialism  advocates  free  love,  is  based  on  an  ut- 
terly degraded  idea  of  woman  in  the  minds  of  those  who  make  it.~ 
Socialism  proclaims  common  ownership  of  means  of  production. 
If  one  assumes  that  a woman  is  merely  a means  of  production’ 
of  life,  one  logically  comes  to  the  conclusion  that  community  of 
wives  is  a natural  result  of  this  doctrine.  But  Socialism  does  not 
hold  any  such  bestial  theory.  It  regards  woman  as  the  spiritual 
equal  of  men;  inferior  to  man  as  regards  masculinity;  superior 
to  man  as  regards  femininity;  and  in  everything  equal  to  man 
as  regards  humanity.  There  is  no  woman  who  will  ever  be  as 
much  of  a man.  There  is,  on  the  other  hand,  no  man  living  who 
will  ever  be  as  good  a woman  as  any  woman  living.  But  there 
is  no  common  standard  whereby  we  can  say  that  masculinity  is 
either  inferior  or  superior  to  femininity;  because  both  are  equal 
and  integral  halves  of  the  common  whole — humanity.  The  unit 
of  society  is  neither  man  nor  woman,  but  both,  and  something 
more — that  is,  the  family. 

Whatever  proposition  individual  Socialists  may  have  ad- 
vanced as  to  marriage,  the  essential  thing  about  it  was  nearly 
always  to  proclaim  the  sacredness  of  family  life.  That  is  to  say, 
easy  dissolution  of  marriage,  where  it  has  been  advocated  at  all, 
has  been  based  on  the  proposition  that  slave  marriages  are  an 
injury  to  family  life;  that  the  economic  bondage  of  women  forces 
them  often  into  marriages  that  are  revolting  and.  degrading  to  the 
life  of  their  families ; and  that  in  order  to  keep  the  family  pure, 
it  is  necessary  to  make  it  possible  to  release  persons  once  mar- 
ried, from  a yoke  which  by  reason  of  disease,  crime,  or  depravity 
of  one  or  the  other  partner  has  become  an  evil  thing.  Most  of 
those  Socialists,  in  other  words,  who  advocate  the  lightening  of 
the  marriage  yoke,  do  so  for  the  preservation  of  the  home,  and 
not  for  its  destruction. 

But  now  let  me  say  that  there  are  certain  homes  whose  de- 
struction ig  eagerly  sought  by  Socialism.  I refer  to  such  homes 


32 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist. 

as  exist  in  thousands  of  mill  towns,  in  thousands  of  tenements 
in  this  city;  homes,  so-called,  where  parents  and  children,  from 
the  tiniest  tots  up  to  gray-haired  grandparents,  toil  like  cattle 
from  early  dawn  until  utter  exhaustion  compels  them  to  cease, 
late  at  night,  in  order  to  scrape  together  barely  enough  to  keep 
a little  warmth  in  their  bodies  and  a miserable  roof  over  their 
heads.  Such  homes  as  those  in  many  manufacturing  centers, 
where  little  children  are  starved  to  death  while  their  parents 
slave  like  dogs.  Such  homes  as  we  can  see  here  on  the  East  Side, 
with  twenty  people  living  in  a single  room;  where  decency  is 
preserved  only  with  the  most  terrific  efforts,  if  at  all;  where  the 
xuajor  portion  of  the  fruits  of  the  toil  of  a whole  family  goes  to  a 
landlord  who  watches  them  with  the  eyes  of  a vampire,  eagerly 
waiting  the  chance  to  raise  their  rents  and  steal  a little  more 
from  their  pockets — these  homes  must  go! 

The  extension  of  the  public  domain  to  include  mines,  quar- 
ries, oil  wells,  forest  and  water  power  for  the  improvement  of  the 
condition  of  the  working  class  by  shortening  the  workday  so 
Chat  all  may  share  the  benefits  that  machinery  has  so  far  brought 
only  to  a few;  for  securing  to  the  worker  a rest  period  of  not 
less  than  a day  and  a half  each  week;  for  forbidding  the  employ- 
ment of  children  under  16  ;^ears  of  age;  for  abolishing  official 
charity  and  substituting  in  its  place  compulsory  insurance  against 
old  age,  disease,  accident,  invalidism  or  death;  for  a graduated 
income  tax;  for  initiative,  referendum  and  recall,  and  many  sim- 
ilar measures.  Now  if  you  can  show  me  where  the  mass  of  the 
people  will  suffer  from  such  measures  as  these  I shall  be  obliged 
to  you,  for  I assure  you  I am  unable  to  see  the  danger.  Of 
course  many  young  men,  and  old  ones  too,  who  now  pass-their 
time  in  bored  idleness,  while  upheld  on  the  weary  shoulders  of  the 
workers  of  the  world,  will  have  to  climb  out  of  automobiles  and 
earn  their  own  living.  To  them  this  is  an  untold  calamity  and 
they  cry  aloud  at  the  injustice  of  it;  but  I think  the  duty  of  every 
human  being  is  to  be  a good  enough  human  being  to  get  his  own 
living,  and  that  every  man  who  is  willing  to  work  shall  have  work 
and  shall  enjoy  the  product  of  his  labor. 


33 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist, 

JOIN  THE  SOCIALIST  PARTY. 

You  should  join  the  Socialist  party  because  it  is  a working-- 
man's  party  and  advocates  the  economic  interests  of  workingmen. 

’ The  Socialist  party  is  composed  of  workingmen,  supported  by 
workingmen  and  controlled  by  workingmen.  All  other  parties 
are  supported  and  controlled  by  capitalists,  although  largely  com- 
posed of  workingmen  who  are  ignorant  of  their  interests. 

The  Socialist  party  proposes  that  workingmen  shall  have  the 
opportunity  to  labor  and  get  what  they  earn.  Workingmen  will 
not  have  this  opportunity  as  long  as  the  rnachinery  of  toil  is, 
owned  by  the  capitalists.' 

Workingmen,  in  order  to  get  justice  and  secure  freedom, 
must  obtain  control  of  the  mills,  mines  and  factories  in  which 
they  must  work.  The  Socialist  party  is  an  organization  of  work- 
ingmen which  has  for  its  object  the  capturing  of  the  machinery 
of  industry  by  the  working  class  for  the  working  class. 

Under  Socialism  workers  will  get  what  they  earn,  and  all 
will  be  workers. 

We  will  get  Socialism  when  a sufficient  number  of  working- 
men join  the  Socialist  party  and  help  get  it. 

SOCIALISM  IN  SIXTEEN  WORDS. 

Collective  Ownership  and  Democratic  Management  of  Things 
Collectively  Used,  and  Private  Ownership  of  Things 
Privately  USED. 

CONVERTED  BY  PRAYER  AND  PRISON. 

The  true  aim  of  Socialism  and  the  main  achievements  of  So- 
cialism are,  first,  equality  of  opportunity  to  every  man,  woman 
and  child;  second,  the  full  product  to  the  producer. 

The  Coming  Nation  printed  the  story  of  the  battle  of  the 
girls  of  the  Kalamazoo  Corset  Company.  In  that  was  told  how, 
when  the  courts  and  the  police  .were  all  turned  against  them,  the 
girls  gathered  every  day  and  prayed  for  relief.  The  prayer  was 
written  by  the  president,  Josephine  Casey.  It  is  one  of  the  strong- 
est, simplest  heart  cries  that  ever  rose  from  suffering  human 
beings.  The  prayer  as  written  and  uttered  by  the  girls  is  as  fol- 
lows: 


34 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist. 

^'Oh,  God,  our  Father,  you,  who  are* generous,  who  said,  'Ask, 
and  ye  shall  receive,''  we,  your  children,  humbly  beseech  you  to 
grant  that  we  may  receive  enough  wages  to  clothe  and  feed  our 
bodies  and  just  a little  leisure,  oh.  Lord,  to  give  our  souls  a 
chance  to  grow. 

"Our  employer,  who  has  plenty,  has  denied  our  request.  He 
has  misused  the  law  to  help  him  to  crush  us,  but  we  appeal  to  you, 
our  God  and  Father,  and  to  your  laws,  which  are  stronger  than 
the  laws  made  by  man. 

"Oh,  Christ,  thou  who  waited  through  the  long  night  in  the 
Garden  of  Gethsemane  for  one  of  your  followers,  who  was  to 
betray  you,  who  in  agony  for  us  didst  say  to  your  disciples,  'Will 
you  not  watch /one  hour  with  me?'  give  strength  to  those  who 
are  now  on  picket  duty,  not  to  feel  too  bitterly  when  those  who 
promised  to  stand  with  us  in  our  struggles  betray  us. 

"Oh,  God,  we  pray  you  to  give  to  the  fathers  and  mothers  of 
our  strikers  a chance  to  bring  up  their  helpless  little  ones. 

"You,  who  let  Lot  and  his  family  escape  from  the  wicked  city 
of  Sodom,  won't  you  please  save  the  girls  now  on  strike?  Help 
us  to  get  a living  wage. 

"Oh,  Lord,  who  knowest  the  sparrow's  fall,  won't  you  help 
us  to  resist  when  the  modern  devil  who  has  charge  of  our  work- 
takes  advantage  of  our  poverty  to  lead  us  astray.  Sometimes, 
oh.  Lord,,  it  is  hard.  Hunger  and  cold  are  terrible  things,  and 
they  make  us  weak.  We  want  to  do  right.  Help  us  to  be  strong. 

"Oh,  God,  we  have  apf)ealed  to  the  ministers,  we  have  ap- . 
pealed  to  the  public,  we  have  appealed  to  the  press.  But  iflall 
these  fail  us  in  our  need  we  know  that  you  will  not  fail  us.  Grant 
that  we  may  win  this  strike  and  that  the  union  may  be  strong, 
so  that  we  may  not  need4:o  cry  so  often,  'Lord,  deliver  us  from 
temptation.' 

"We  ask  this.  Lord,  for  the  sake  of  the  little  children,  help- 
less and  suffering;  for  the  girls  who  may  some  day  be  mothers 
of  children,  and  for  those  girls  who  dislike  sin,  but  are  forced 
into  it  through  poverty. 

"Oh,  Christ,  who  didst  die  on  the  cross,  we  will  try  to  ask 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist  35 

you  to  forgive  those  who  would  crush  us,  for,  perhaps  they  do 
not  know  what  they  do. 

‘'All  this  we  ask  in  the  name  of  the  lowly  Carpenter’s  Son, 
Amen.” 

For  three  weeks  this  little  group  of  girls  begged  on  bended 
knees  that  they  might  have  a chance  to  live  in  freedom  from  the 
hideous  temptations  that  were  forced  upon  them.  The  prayer 
produced  no  results.  The  churches  of  the  city  of  Kalamazoo  were 
deaf.  Then  Miss  Casey,  with  her  sister  strikers,  went  on  the 
streets  to  ask  their  fellow  workers  to  maintain  their  solidarity  in 
the  fight  against  these  terrible  conditions.  The  response  was 
quick  and  the  president  of  the  union,  with  several  others,  was 
thrown  into  jail. 

Now  comes  The  final  chapter  in  the  .story.  During  all  the 
time  that  Miss  Casey  was  in  Chicago,  although  she  had  worked 
with  the  Socialists  in  trade  union  meetings,  she  had  always  re- 
fused to  accept  their  position  politically.  Bu^  what  no  agitator  ^ 
could  have  accomplished,  what  no  argument  and  urging  could 
have  brought  about,  the  three  weeks  of  unanswered  prayer,  the 
hardness  of  those  who  claimed  to  follow  the  “Lowly  Carpenter’s 
Son,”  the  fact  that  the  only  body  that  did  respond  to  this  heart- 
breaking prayer  was  the  so-called  irreligious,  atheistic,  home- 
breaking Socialist  party,  that  went  into  the  streets  to  share  the 
same  fate  and  fight  the  same  battle  that  was  being  fought  by  the 
corset  makers.  These  things  ended  in  a letter  that  was  received 
by  the  editor  of  the  Coming  Nation  a few  days  ago  that  began, 
“Dear  Comrade,”  and  says:  “You  might  like  to  know  that  since 

coming  to  jail  I have  joined ‘the  Socialist  party.  I suppose  the 
same  visfon  of  what  the  labor  struggle  really  meqns  came  to  me 
while  caged  and  looking  through  bars  as  it  did  to  Eugene  Debs 
years  ago  when  he  was  in  a similar  position  and  I firmly  believe 
will  come  to  every  labor  official  unjustly  imprisoned.”  And  this 
letter  is  signed  Josephine  Casey. 

WHY  RENTS  ARE  HIGH. 

Have  you  ever  stopped  to  figure  out  what  makes  rent  so 
high  ? 

In  the  country  you  can  buy  an  acre  of  ground  often  for  as 


36 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist, 


little  as  $100.  The  dirt  in"it  is  as  good  as  the  dirt  in  a small  city 
lot  which  costs  you  perhaps  $2,000.  Put  a house  on  it  costing, 
say,  $3,000,  and  for  $3,100  you  have  a home  which,  if  moved  by 
a fairy  to  the  crowded  part  of  a modern  city,  would  make  you 
independently  rich  for  life. 

Now,  there  is  very  little  difference  between  the  prices  of 
stone,  brick,  mortar  and  lumber  in  the  country  and  in  the  city. 
The  difference  in  the  wages  of  the  house  builders  is  greater,  but 
not  nearly  enough  to  account  for  the  tremendous  difference  in  the 
selling  price  of  the  finished  home  in  country  and  town. 

Thus  the  only  big  thing  left  to  account  for  the  higher  city 
value  is  that  in  the  city  more  people  want  land.  And  that,  of 
course  is  true.  They  want  it  because  they  have  to  have  it;  be- 
cause it  is  as  necessary  for  their  existence  as  water  or  air. 

Yet  how  often  do  we  see  a few  persons  buying  control  of 
great  tracts  of  land  in  or  near  a city,  fencing  it  in  and  refusing 
to  let  people  who  heed  land  badly  have  access  to  it  until  they  pay 
a fancy  price. 

Imagine  the  howl  that  would  go  up  if  private  individuals 
should  in  a similar  manner  get  control  of  large  reserves  of  the 
water  we  drink  or  the  air  we  breathe  and  hold  us  all  up  in  the 
mere  act  of  living  until  we  came  to  their  terms  for  drinking 
water  or  oxygen. 

The  owner  of  * idle  land  in  a city,  of  course,  adds  nothing  by 
such  ownership  to  the  city’s  growth.  On  the  contrary,  he  retards 
it.  Makes  it  the  more  difficult  for  an  industrious  man,  a pro- 
ducer, one  who  is  daily  adding  t^  the  community’s  wealth,  to  find 
a place  to  lay  his  head. 

• Rents  are  high,  then,  because  the  big  growth  in  land  values 
due  fo  the  growth  of  our  cities,  has  been  permitted  to  pass  into 
private  pockets,  and  chiefly  the  pockets  of  a few  in  each  com- 
munity, while  the  many  have  to  pay  increasing  tribute  on  the 
very  wealth  which  their  own  industry  has  created. 

Rents  cannot  be  pulled  down  suddenly  unless  by  the  destruc- 
tion of  all  values;  but, we  can  begin  to  reduce  them  gradually  and 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist,  37 

equitably  whenever  we  shall  set  forth  to  untax  improvements  on 
land  and  increase  the  tax  on  unearned  increment. 

There  is  no  reason  or  justice,  is  there,  why  you,  a worker, 
should  have  to  spend  a fourth  of  your  income  for  rent,  when  up 
the  next  street  some  chap  who  never  did  a day's  work  in  his  life 
gets  from  ground  rent  on  inherited  real  estate  an  income  which 
enables  him  to  house  himself  in  luxury  on  its  tenth,  hundredth 
or  thousandth? 

Moses  preached  the  good  law.  Leviticus  XXV ; 23. : “The 

land  shall  not  be  sold  forever,  for  the  land  is  mine  (God's)  for  ye 
are  strangers  and  sojourners  with  me."  Leviticus  XXV;  36.: 
“Take  thou  no  usury  (profits)  of  him,  or  increase;  but  fear  thy 
God;  that  thy  brother  may  live  with  thee." 

NOTE — Our  teaching  is  in  perfect  harmony  with  God's  law 
today.  Listen  to  what  the  prophets  say  will  overtake  us  if  we 
don't  keep  the  God's  or  good-law: 


FALL  LIKE  ROME'S  WAITS  OUR  NATION,  SAYS  J.  HAM 

LEWIS. 


Stock  Exchange  Corners  of  Today  Like  Crassus'  Monopoly  in 

Town  Lots. 

Author  of  New  Book. 


“The  Man  with  the  Pink  Whiskers"  Compares  Ancient  and 
Modern  Republics. 


Washington,  Sept.  25. — The  'same  conditions  which  existed 
in  Rome  just  before  the  downfall  of  the  empire  are  to  be  found 
in  the  United  States  today,  and  unless  reform  is  Effected  they 
will  have  the  same  results. 

These  are  the  conclusions  of  Senator  James  Hamilton  Lewis 
of  Illinois,  in  his  book  just  published,  “The  Two  Great  Repub- 
lics, Rome  and  the  United  States." 

“The  monopoly  of  Crassus  in  town  lots  in  Rome,  and  the 
exclusive  rjght  to  dictate  the  price  of  farm  products  by  the  Fabii 
and  their  successors,  which  produced  riots  in  the  country  and 


38  The  Religion  of  a Socialist. 

uprisings  in  the  city,  have  their  parallel  in  the  ‘corners'  on  the 
stock  exchange  and  grain  ho’tises  of  America,  and  in  the  monopoly 
in  oil  and  its  elements,"  says  Senator  Lewis. 

“These  methods  and  the  domination  of  legislative  bodies  by 
these  massive  interests,  the  corrupting  of  the  assemblies  of  the 
people  and  the  defining  of  the  courts  have  created  a revolt  in  the 
hearts  of  the  Americans  and  awakened  an  insurrection  among 
the  citizenship.  These,  if'not  abated  by  government  action,  will 
surely  produce  a parallel  in  the  results  which  befell  the  Roman 
empire." 

Senator  Lewis  also  pays  his  respects  to  the  demagogue^ho 
capitalizes  such  prestige  as  he  may  have.  Referring  to  Garbo, 
he  says : “The  life  of  this  politician  seems  an  excellent  example, 

in  proof  of  the  statement  that  the  demagogue  seeks  the  favor  of 
the  people  only  for  his  own  advantage  and  that  as  soon  as  he  has 
acquired  such  favor  and  has  become  a person  of  influence,  his 
next  step  is  to  sell  himself,  now  valuable  on  account  of  the  politi- 
cal power  he  has  acquired  through  his  hypocrisy  toward  the  peo- 
ple, to  the  special  interests." 

CHRISTIAN  SOCIALISM. 

Editor  the  Tribune: 

Rev.  John  Henry  Troy  recently  preached  on  the  “Collapse  of 
Socialism,"  in  which  he  stated  without  warrant  that  “there  is  not 
a philosopher  in  the  world's  history  who  stands  out  more  strongly 
against  Socialism  than  Jesus  Christ."  I call  for  the  proofs.  The 
undersigned  feels  safe  in  assuming  that  Mr.  Troy  stands  quite 
alone  in  his  assumptions.  New  York  ministers  recently  organ- 
ized a ministers'*  socialistic  conference,  the  object  to  make  it  a 
national  one.  Three  hundred  of  the  clergy — Unitarians,  Episco- 
palians, Baptists,  Methodists,  Presbyterians — are  Socialists  now 
by  open  confession.  Many  times  this  number  are  secretly  in 
sympathy  with  the  cause.  Rev.  John  D.  Long,  pastor  of  the 
Park  Side  Presbyterian  church,  Brooklyn,  was  secretary  of  the 
conference.  Clergymen,  he  said,  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that 
Christianity  will  not  work  under  a competitive  system  and  that 
the  inauguration  of  Socialism  is  necessary  for  civilized  human 


39 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist 

beings.  Therefore  it  is  the  duty  of  the  church  to  step  in  anc^ad- 
• vocate  Christian  Socialism.  H.  H.  Rogers  said  business  is  war, 
and  if,  as  General  Sherman  said,  war  is  hell,  then  business  under 
competitive  system  must  be  hell  also.  I believe  that  the  Socialism 
advocated  by  the  New  York  ministers  is  the  Socialism  of  the 
primitive  church  portrayed  in  the  second  of  Acts,  looming  up  as 
the  prospective  goal  to  which  a federated  church  of  the  near 
future  is  tending.  H.  S.  TANNER.  % 

Los  Angeles,  Cal. 

An  the  early  days  of  our  race  the  Almighty  said  to  the  first 
of  mankind,  ‘Tn  the  sweat  of  thy  face  thou  shall  eat  bread,’’  and 
since  then,  if  we  except  the  light  and  air  of  Heaven,  no  good  thing 
has  been  or  can  be  enjoyed  by  us  without  first  having  caused 
labor,  and  inasmuch  as  most  good  things  have  been  produced  by 
labor,  it  follows  that  all  such  things  belong  by  right  to  those 
whose  labor  produced  them.  But  it  has  so  happened  in  all  ages 
of  the  world  that  some  have . labored  and  others  have,  without 
labor,  enjoyed  a large  portion  of  the  fruits.  This  is  wrong  and 
should  not  continue. 

President  Taft,  of  the  United  States  of  America,  in  his 
speech  at  Boston,  December  30,  1907,  said:  'Tdleness  is  the  be- 
ginning of  evil.”  The  increase  in  unemployment  means  the  in- 
crease in  crime,  divorce,  suicide,  murder,  hold-ups,  prostitution 
and  all-round  degeneracy.  See  by  the  statistics  how  the  increase 
in  crime  correspofids  with  the  increase  in  unemployment.  The 
danger  of  the  approaching  crisis  will  be  the  unemployed.  Mil- 
lions will  be  on  the  highways  and  byways  without  work  and  con- 
sequently homelessr  and  hungry.  Will  the  owners  of  factory, 
mine  or  mill  put  all  men  to  work  when  their  warehouses  are  full 
and  they  can  find  no  foreign  markets?  No,  they  never  will. 

Lincoln’s  Voice  on  Labor  in  ’65. 

President  Lincoln  said,  ‘Tt  is  assumed  that  labor  is  only 
available  in  connection  with  capital;  that  nobody  labors  unless 
somebody  owns  the  capital  and  somehow  by  the  use  of  it 
induces  him  to  labor.  Labor  is  prior  to  and  independent  of  capi- 
tal. Capital  is  only  the  fruit  of  labor  and  could  not  have  ex- 


40 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist. 

isted  if  labor  had  not  first  existed.  Labor  is  the  superior  of 
capital  and  deserves  much  the  higher  consideration.  I bid  the 
laboring  people  beware  of  surrendering  the  power  which  they 
possess  and  which,  if  surrendered  will  surely  be  used  to  shut  the 
door  of  advancement  for  such  as  they  and  fix  new  disabilities  and 
burdens  upon  them  until  all  of  liberty  shall  be  lost.  Therefore, 
to  secure  to  each  laborer  the  whole  product  of  his  labor,  as  nearly 
ai^  possible,  is  a worthy  object  of  any  government.  America, 
ivith  its  institutions,  belongs  to  the  people  who  inhabit  it.  When- 
ever they  grow  weary  of  the  existing  system  they  can  exercise 
their  constitutional  rights  of  amending  it.  Not  alone  chattel 
slaves  and  serfs,  But  'wage  slaves  also  5,re  used  simply,  only  al- 
ways as  domesticated  human  animals  to  produce  surplus  for  their 
masters.  Slavery  was  a surplus  game.  Serfdom  was  a surplus 
game.  Capitalism  is  also  a surplus  game.  By  pinching,  repress- 
ing, restricting  the  wage-earner’s  life  the  capitalist  employer 
skims  off  a surplus.  By  belittling  the  wage-earner’s  life  the  emr 
ployer  increases  his  own  life — with  the  surplus  legally  filched 
from  the  life  of  the  wage-earner.  Surplus — stolen  life — by  means 
of  the  wage  system,  legally  pumped  from  the  veins  of  the  wage- 
paid  toilers.  With  this  surplus  the  capitalist  buys  his  fine 
yachts,  automobiles,  monkey  and  poodle  dinners,  pays  his  politi- 
cal party  campaign  expenses,  bribes  city  councils,  state  and  na- 
tional legislatures,  exhorbitant  prices  for  the  articles  their  toil 
and  skill  have  brought  into  existence.  The  nten  responsible  for 
these  conditions  are  called  good  Christians;  they  attend  church 
on  Sunday.  They  Worship  Mammon  frantically  six  days  of  the 
week  and  God  for  an  hour  on  the  Sabbath. 

Capital  Heartless,  Divine  Declares.  Revolution  Likely  to  Come 


Any  Day,  Hibernians  Are  Told. 

Sydney,  May  3. — Dr.  Kelly,  the  Roman  Catholic  primate  of 
Australia,  addressing  the  ILibernian  Society  here,  referred  to  the 
recent  strikes  and  the  threats  of  strikes  and  said: 

'‘The  contention  and  strife  between  capital  and  labor  may 
develop  into  a revolution  any  day,  because  capital  is  heartless 


41 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist. 

and  renders  labor  desperate,  and  because  labor  is  emboldened  by 
the  success  attending  violence.  Society  with  us  is  in  a very 
parlous  and  dangerous  condition.^' 

Dr.  Kelly  added  that  a man  must  not  put  his  hand  into  an- 
other man's  pocket  unless  he  is  starving  and  his  tongue  is  hang- 
ing out  with  thirst.  Then  he  may  take  from  another  man's 
pocket. 

How  to  Fill  the  Pews. 

We  like  the  spirit  behind  the  plan  of  that  Cincinnati  clerg- 
man  who  has  opened  his  church  evenings  to  the  unemployed, 
serving  free  food,  good  advice  and  an  invitation  ^to  use  the  idle 
pews  as  cots  if  they  have  nowhere  else  to  lay  their  tired  heads. 
That  is  .most  decidedly  the  spirit  of  Christianity  as  exemplified 
in  the  teachings  and  practice  of  Christ,  and  the  early  Christians. 
He  preached — yes;  but  He  also  fed  the  hungry  and  healed  the 
sick  and  comforted  the  miserable.  And  we  guess  it  wasn't  half 
so  much  His  preaching,  unsurpassed  as  that  was,  as  it  was  His 
practicing  that  made  the  common  people  hear  Him  gladly  and 
follow  him  with  affection. 

In  each  of  our  cities  are  great,  fine  churches,  representing 
millions  invested,  but  empty  and  dark  most  of  the  week  and  not 
any  too  well  filled  or\  Sunday.  And  outside,  on  the  streets,  are 
able  men,  who  have  no  work  and  are  hungry — some,  also,  bitter 
men,  who  think  the  church  is  of  no  use  to  them  and  who  some- 
times, with  an  oath,  doubt  whether  even  God  cares. 

Rev.  A.  N.  Kelly  of  Cincinnati  believes  that  God  does  care 
and  that  at  least  one  church  can  help.  He  doesn't  stop  with  be- 
lieving and  saying  it — he  is  PROVING  it. 

If  Christ  were  in  every  church,  do  you  suppose  that  its  doors 
would  stand  closed  and  its  kitchen  idle  while  hunger  stalked  the 
town?  Then  why  isn't  your  church  working?  Did  we  hear  you 
say  ‘T  have  no  church"?  Yes,  you  have;  you  have  Rev.  Mr. 
Kelly's  church.  If  you  lived  in  Cincinnati  could  you  be  kept  from 
lending  a hand* to  a church  like  that? 

Nobody  knows  the  suffering,  the  struggling  of  the  men  and 
women  in  this  country  and  in  every  country  piteously  trying  to  be 


42 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist. 

better  than  somebody  else,  or  to  be  recognized  by  somebody  else 
as  an  equal.  The  smallest  town  has  its  ‘‘society  leader,'’  bliss- 
fully vain  in  her  belief  in  her  own  superiority,  and  its  crowds  of 
bitterly  disoppointed,  striving,  struggling  women — ^d  men  as 
well — trying  to  enter  the  charmed  circle  of  silly  social  vanity. 

Unhappily,  men  who  believe  themselves  sincere  and  that 
would  like  to  be  sincere,  thousands  and  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
them,  are  apparently  good  and  unselfish,  because  they  have  no 
opportunity  to  be  otherwise. 

There  was  a leader  long  ago,  who  spoke  neither  of  vanity  nor 
of  wealth.  He  spoke  of  the  poor  that  needed  protection,  of  chil- 
dren that  weye  outrageously  and  cruelly  treated,  of  women, 
shamefully  judged  and  unjustly  treated.  He  had  nothing  to 
offer  to  man's  vanity,  nothing  to  offer  to  his  greed.  THEY 
CRUCIFIED  HIM. 

There  are  two  struggles  in  America,  one  for  advancement  so- 
cially, and  the  other  for  advancement  financially. 

Emile  de  Layeleye,  the  eminent  Belgian  economist,  who  had 
the  deepest  reverence  for  Christianity  as  a social  force,  said.  “If 
Christianity  were  taught  and  understood  conformably  to  the 
spirit  of  its  founder  the  existing  social  organism  could  not  last 
a day.” 

James  Russell  Lowell  said:  “There  is  dynamite  enough  in 
the  new  testament,  if  illegitimately  applied,  to  blow  all  our  exist- 
ing institutions  to  atoms.” 

William  Morris  stated:  “A  society  which  is  founded  on  the 

system  of  compelling  all  well-to-do  people  to  live  on  making  the 
greatest  profit  out  of  labor  of  others  must  be  wrong.” 

If  the  establishment  of  a just  system  will  not  be  able  to 
change  the  selfish  nature  of  man,  then  it  may  be  easily  under- 
stood why  religion  and  the  church  have  so  sadly  failed  to  change 
human  nature  and  to  establish  righteousness  among  men. 

The  scriptures  tells  us  that  man  and  wonian  were  created  in 
order  that  this  race  might  be  perpetuated.  If  the  scriptures  tell 
the  truth  a child  has  the  right  to  be  born,  and  if  that  be  true  the 
child  has  a right  to  a place  to  be  born  in.  If  that  is  true,  when 
that  child  becomes  old  enough  it  has  a right  to  go  to  school  and 


43 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist. 

acquire  an  education.  If  that  be  true,  when  that  child  becomes 
old  enough  it  has  a right  to  go  to  work,  but  no  man  has  the  right 
to  say,  '‘Before  this  child  shall  work  for  me  it  shall  giye  me  three- 
fourths  of  what  it  shall  produce.''  , This  is  wrong  and  unjust. 

We  pray  for  the  kingdom  of  Heaven  364  days  in  the  year  and 
on  election  day  we  vote  for  hell.  You  can't  change  the  present 
system  of  society  that  way.  You  will  have  to  vote  as  well  as  pray. 
Vote  that  the  collective  ownership  and  democratic  management 
of  things  collectively  used,  and  private  ownership  of  things  pri- 
vately used.  This  is  Socialism. 

GATES  CHAINED  AND  PADLOCKED,  INSTEAD  OF  “LIB- 
ERTY ENLIGHTENING  THE  WORLD." 

A pair  of  iron  gates  chained  and  padlocked  shut — we  sug- 
gest this  as  a substitute  for  the  statue  at  the  entrance  to  the 
New  York  harbor — that  figure  representing  Liberty  enlightening 
the  world. 

Why  should  we  longer  keep  the  statue  there?  When  the 
symbol  ceases  to  have  a meaning,  when  the  memorial  stands  for 
something  that  is  forgot,  it  is  time  for  both  to  make  way  for  the 
new.  The  gates  and  padlock  are  proper  emblems^  .of  our  newer 
thought.  ^ 

An  editor  comes  to  our  port  who  is  charged  with  libeling  a 
king.  We  slam  the  door  in  his  face.  Shades  of  Thomas  Paine! 
Have  we  gone  back  to  that  superstition  about  the  Divine  Right  of 
Kings?  Is  it  possible  that  there  are  things  which  a man  who 
opposes  monarchy  must  not  say  about  a monarch — the  saying  of 
which  will  be  an  offense  in  the  republic  of  the  United  States?  Is 
there  such  a thing  as  a political  offense  which  will  close  the  gates 
of  this  city  to  the  refugee?. 

If  Garibaldi  were  aliv£  would  we  class  him  as  an  undesirable 
immigrant  and  turn  him  back  in  an  Italian  ship? 

And  even  this  old  adventurer,  Cipriano  Castro — is  he  not  an 
ex-president  of  a republic? — one  of  that  sisterhood  of  republics 
to  the  south,  about  which  we  like  to  make  glowing  after-dinner 
speeches?  And  are  not  he  and  Washington  in  the  same  political 
class — revolutionists?  If  the  president  of  Portugal  should  decide 


44 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist, 

to  come  and  live  with  us  would  we  arrest  him  and  turn  him  back 
on  the  next  returning  steamer? 

Possibly.  It  was  many  months  before  our  state  department 
gave  any  recognition  to  the  Portugese  republic.  Several  mon- 
archies showed  us  the  way.  And  we  have  not  recognized  the 
Chinese  republic  yet.  Perhaps  we  are  waiting  for  the  outcome  of 
Morgan’s  syndicate,  which  seeks  a mortgage  on  the  new  regime. 
When  the  loan  has  been  properly  subscribed  and  the  people  of 
the  new  republic  are  fittingly  laid  under  interest  tribute  to  the 
great  bankers  of  the  world,  perhaps  our  state  department  will  be 
allowed  to  recognize  that  the  people  have  overthrown  the’  mon- 
archial  system  also  on  that  side  of  the  earth. 

Senator  Root  wants  a law  passed  to  enable  governments  like 
Russia  and  Mexico  to  follow  and  seize  political  refugees  to  the 
United  States.  Such  a law  is  a logical  demand  in  following  out 
the  policy  which  we  have  begun.  Monarchy  and  special  privilege 
are  one.  Their  interests  are  identical.  Their  purposes  are  the 
same  and  should  be  forwarded  by  co-operative  methods.  The 
secret  service  of  Russia  and  our  immigration  bureau  should  work 
hand  in  hand.  Disturbers  should  be  followed  and  apprehended. 
The  enemies  of  privilege — whether  kings  or  high  finance-7- 
should  be  labeled  ''anarchists”  and  hounded  into  jails  The  en- 
trance to  our  port  should  be  more  securely  barred  and  carefully 
watched.  And  that  old  figure  of  a woman  with  a torch  held 
aloft — it  probably  signifies  the  fires  of  anarchy  and  discontent — 
should  be  removed.  It  should  be  consigned  to  the  dumping  place 
for  liberties  forgot. 

Liberty  sustains  the  same  relationship  to  mind  that  space 
does  to  matter.  The  man  who  does  not  do  his  own  thinking  is  a 
slave,  and  is  a traitor  to  himself  and  to  his  felloW  men. — Robert 
G,  Ingersoll, 

MEDALS  AND  MEN. 

When  a workingman  in  private  employ  has  served  long  and 
faithfully,  -the  government  of  Saxony  confers  on  him  a silver 
medal  in  recognition  of  the  years  and  toil  he  has  contributed  to 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist.  45 

the  country's  progress.  Fine  idea  for  the  U.  S.,  someone  says. 
Let's  see. 

John  Petroski,  American  born,  takes  his  place  as  a coal  miner 
at  the  age  of  sixteen.  When  John  is  21,  still  straight  and  strong^ 
he  marries  pretty  Maria,  Twenty  years  pass  and  John  has  done 
a quarter  of  a century's  work,  toiling  from  daybreak  for  10,  12 
and  even  14  hours  a day  in  the  depth  of  a mine,  emerging  each 
night  with  begrimed  body,  deadened  mind  and  unconscious  that 
he  has  ever  had  a soul. 

In  a house  of  two  rooms  exists  John  Petroski,  aged  41,  his 
wife  Maria  and  seven  children.  Forty-one  years  of  age,  the  be- 
ginning of  manhood's  prime,  but  John  is  stoop-shouldered,  thin, 
staring  blankly  at  the  world,  without  love,  without  hope,  without 
life  enough  even  to  complain. 

One  night  six  miners  bring  home  what  is  left  of  John  on  an 
improvised  stretcher.  Oh,  just  a slight  accident,  the  superin- 
tendent tells  the  reporters.  The  mechanical  and  human  machinery 
of  the  great  mine  wasn't  stopped  in  its  work  for  more  than  ten 
minutes.  John's  leg  has  to  be  cut  off,  so  he's  fired.  The  mine 
can't  be  expected  to  hire  cripples.  - 

John  begins  to  murmur  a little  over  the  bitter  poverty  that 
faces  him.  This  must  be  stopped  at  once.  Brilliant  Mea ! Get  a 
government  medal  for  him.  He  has  served  25  years.  That  will 
prevent  him  from  complaining  of  hunger  and  cold,  and  unin- 
spected machinery  which  made  the  ac(^ident  possible  will  again 
escape  attention.  Fine  idea. 

Wouldn't  a service  pension  be  more  of  a recognition  than  a 
medal?  Wouldn't  federal  investigation  and  real  federal  enforce- 
ment of  safe  working  conditions  and  adequate  v^^ages  be  even 
better  than  a pension?  You  answer  that. 

‘‘WEALTHY  WILL  FACE  HUNGRY  MOBS  ON  THE 
STREETS.— Dr.  Wiley. 

Washington,  Feb.  13. — Prediction  of  a revolution  by  under- 
paid and  underfed  Americans  is  made  here  Tuesday  by  Dr.  Har- 
vey W.  W'iley,  the  government's  food  expert. 

“The  time  is  rapidly  approaching,"  said  Dr.  Wiley,  “when 


46 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist 

the  wealthy  will  face  mob  violence  on  the  streets.  The  situation 
will  be  due  to  the  fast  approaching  day  when  working  people  will 
be  deprived  of  means  of  subsistence.  Every  day  the  position  of 
the  workingman  is  becoming  worse.’" 

Supplementing  his  statements  regarding  mob  violence,  Dr. 
Wiley  said:  ‘T  thoroughly  agree  with  Judge  E.  H.  Gary  that  un- 
less something  is  done  to  alleviate  the  present  conditions  of  un- 
rest in  the  nation  mob  rule  is  bound  to  come.  The  sentiment  of 
unrest  and  abhorrence  comes  from  over-capitalizing  great  indus- 
tries, the  selling  of  watered  stock,  the  promotion  of  worthless 
land  schemes,  the  extortions  of  express,  telephone  and  telegraph 
systems  and  dozens  of  other  schemes^or  deceiving  and  defraud- 
ing the  people.  The  great  vice  of  the  country  is  its  insane  wor- 
ship of  money.  My  plan  for  relief  is  not  for  mob  violence  to  re- 
distribute wealth,  but  for  education  that  wijl  bring  a state  of 
mind  forbidding  the  illegitimate  accumulation  of  wealth  and  in- 
sure forever  to  this  nation  its  fundamental  principles  of  liberty, 
justice  and  equal  opportunity.” 

SOCIALISM  AND  PATRIOTISM. 

In  several  places  during  the  past  few  nionths,  there  have 
been  wild  outcries  against  desecration  of  the  American  flag  which 
it  is  presumed  that  Socialists  condone.  Red  flags  have  been  torn 
down  by  the  police  in  several  places  on  the  plea  of  outraged  pa- 
triotism; and  a great  many  New  York  newspapers  protest 
against  the  utterances  of  Socialists  that  the  red  flag-  is  superior 
to  the  Stars  and  Stripes. 

This  also  is  a moral  question,  and  therefore  a religious 
one.  It  involves  the  principle  that  the  whole  of  humanil^^  is 
greater  than  any  part  of  it.  The  American  nation  is- one  na- 
tion including  nearly  100,000,000  people.  But  there  are  other 
nations,  including  the  total  population  of  the  globe,  which  is  some 
1,500,000,000.  It  surely  will  not  be  disputed  that  these  1,500,- 
000,000  are  more  than  the  100,000,000.  Therefore  the  symbol  of 
the  nation  is  not  greater  than  the  symbol  of  the  human  race.  The 
red  flag  is  the  symbol  of  the  human  race,  adopted  for  that  pur- 
pose and  proclaimed  to  that  end.  It  represents  the  red  current 


47 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist, 

of  human  blood  which  flows  ip  all  veins  alike.  It  is  a proposition 
in  mathematics,  therefore,  that  the  red  flag  is  superior  to  the 
Stars  and  Stripes,  because  one  represents  the  whole,  the  other 
represei^s  only  a part. 

This  can  be  denied  only  by  a denial  that  the  red  flag  does 
represent  the  whole  of  humanity.  There  is  no  other  flag,  how- 
ever, that  does.  The  •'only  flag  which  at  present  officially  flies 
above  that  of  the  United  States  is  the  church  flag.  Whenever  a 
service  is  being  held  aboard  any  of  our  battleships  at  sea,  the 
church  flag,  containing  a white  cross  on  a blue  ground,  is  flown 
above  the  Stars  and  Stripes.  ^ The  nation  thus  officially  recog- 
nized that  the  church  which  represents  the  religious  principles  of 
humanity,  is,  and  of  right  ought  to  be,  entitled  to  precede  the 
nation.  Now  the  red  flag  represents  all  humanity  also,  not  only 
from  an  economic  point  of  view,  but  from  a moral  point  of  view 
also.  Therefore,  our  claim  that  it  should  fly  above  the  national 
flag. 

Let  us  take  a case  4n  our  own  history.  The  civil  war  was 
turned  on  the  question  whether  the  states  were  superior  to  the 
nation  or  the  nation  to  the  states.  It  was  finally  decided  that  the 
nation  is  superior  to  any  individual  state.  Surely  it  is  not  pos- 
sible to  refrain  from  carrying  our  intelligence  one  step  farther 
and  saying  that  therefore  all  humanity  is  superior  to  any  one 
nation.  , ( 

When  two  nations  conflict,  the  only  way  out  in  times  past 
wasjor  those  two  nations  to  go  to  war.  But  with  the  close  knit- 
ting of  the  worjd  together  in  the  bond  of  modern  industrial,  it  is 
clearly  seen  that  a conflict  between  two  nations  injures  all  the 
rest.  Therefore  we  have  established  international  tribunals  of 
arbitration.  They  hav^,  it  is  true,  not  amounted  to  very  much 
as  yet,  but  the  principle  has  been  recognized.  International  in- 
terests are  superior  to  those  of  any  one  nation. 

This  principle  is  recognized  as  high  and  humane.  But  it  is 
precisely  the  principle  that  the  red  flag  stands  for.  Socialism 
recognizes  national  boundaries  only  as  conveniences  of  admin- 
istration, just  as  we  now  recognize  state  lines.  It  is  Highly  prob- 
able that  if  the  tension  between  England  and  Germany  were  to 


48 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist. 

come  to  a head  war  would  be  prevented  by  the  common  agree- 
ment of  the  workmen  of  both  nations  to  call  a general  strike  un- 
til the  foolishness  of  war  was  stopped.  They  would  do  this  on  the 
principle  of  the  red  flag ; that  the  workers,  of  two  nations  can 
have  no  interests  that  conflict.  Such  a general  strike  would  be  a 
thousand  times  more  effective  and  powerful  than  resort  to  The 
Hague  tribunal.  It  would  be  an  enforcement,  which  could  not 
be  withstood,  of  the  principle  of  international  peace. 

For  humanity  i«  one,  and  rises  or  falls  together.  This  i^the 
fundamental  proposition  for  which  the. red  flag  also  stands.  The 
words  of  Jesus,  'T  have  come  that  ye  might  have  life  and  might 
have  it  more  abundantly,''  sums  up  precisely  the  teachings  of  the 
world  movement  for  which  we  stand.  Life  more  abundant,  both 
material  and  spiritual ; bread,  but  also  4he  y^ords  proceeding  out 
of  the  mouth  of  God,  are  what  we  as  Christians  stand  for,  and 
what  as  intelligent  Socialists  we  should  stand  for,  too. 

During  this  service,  and  during  every  service  of  our  church, 
we  pray  ‘'God  save  the  State."  We  offer  prayers  for  the  presi- 
dent and  all  others  in  authority,  for  the  governor  and  occasionally 
for  congress.  They  all  need  it.  But  now  it  is  evident  that  if  God 
is  to  save  and  protect  a state  it  must  be  in  accordance  with  God's 
will  as  that  is  known  to  us.  To  pray  to  save  a state  which  is  in 
direct  defiance  of  God's  will  and  purpose  is  sheer  blasphemy. 

In  order  to  make  a prayer  worth  offering,  therefore,  it  is 
necessary  for  us  to  bring  the  state  into  accordance  with  the  will 
of  God  as  we  know  it.  What  do  we  know  of  the  nature  of  God, 
into  harmony  with  which  we  may  bring  our  nation  in  order  that 
it  may  stand? 

The  first  thing  about  Him  is  that  He  is  Creator.  Whatever 
be  our  belief,  we  all  admit  that  the  world  is  here  and  that  some- 
thing started  it,  and  something  keeps  it  going.  The  word  “God" 
means  primarily  that  which  made  and  sustains  the  world.  “Na' 
lure"  is  often  used  to  express  this  conception.  There  is  a dif- 
ficulty with  this  word,  because  nature  cannot  mean  both  that 
which  is  made  and  that  which  makes  it.  We  must  distinguish 
between  the  machinery  and  the  power  which  made  it  and  drives 
it,  or  hopeless  confusion  will  result.  The  philosopher  Spinoza 


49 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist, 

started  out  as  a pantheist.  Nature  was  all.  But  he  had  to  dis- 
tinguish between  ‘'Natura  Naturata’’  and  '‘Natura  Naturans”; 
that  is,  between  nature  making  and  nature  made*  This  force 
behind  nature,  the  creative  life,  is  what  we  mean  to  start  with 
when  we  say  ''God.’'  The  nation  must  be  brought  into  harmony 
with  this  life  force  or  it  will  collapse.  A house  not  built  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  law  of  gravitation  will  fall.  A nation  is  simply 
organized  life,  and  a nation  built  in  defiance  of  the  laws  of  the 
life  force  must  likewise  Ifall. 

Jesus  proclaimed  that  God  not  only  had  created  the  world 
but  was  still  creating  it.  "My  Father  worketh  hitherto,”  he  said, 
"and  I work.”  That  is  to  say,  God  keeps  right  on  creating,  there- 
fore the  Son  of  God  must  also  create. 

The  men  who  create,  therefore,  are  in  harmony  with  God. 
A worker  is  a man  who  carries  forward  the  process  of 'creation. 
He  takes  what  God  has  already  done  and  carries  it  a little  fur- 
ther. He  is  a producer;  not  strictly  speaking  a creator,  because 
man’s  labor  always  takes  the  material  lying  ready  and  fashions  it 
into  something  more  useful.  The  labor  of  man  creates  nothing, 
it  only  shapes.  No  laborer  can  work  without  materials,  and  these 
materials  were  made  by  the  creative  power  which  we  call  "God.” 
But  a man  who  produces  has  a share  in  the  creative  work,  and  is 
therefore  a son  of  God. 

On  the  other  hand,  a man  who  consumes  and  produces  noth- 
ing, or  who  consumes  more  than  he  produces,  is  a destroyer  and 
not  a producer.  He  has  taken  sides  with  the  enemies  of  God,  not 
with  His  sons.  He  is  a parasite,  an  excrescence,  and  a foe  of  the 
creative  process. 

Therefore,  a state  to  be  in  accord  with  the  will  of  God  must 
be  built  for  the  encouragement  of  the  workers  and  not  of  the 
destroyers.  If  a man  does  nothing  useful  he  should  be  regarded 
as  an  enemy  of  the  state.  If  he  lives  solely  upon  the  labor  of 
others,  he  should  be  forcibly  made  to  work.  A state  wherein  this 
was  true  would  have  adopted  the  fundamental  rule  of  the  original 
Christian  society : "If  a man  will  not  work,  neither  shall  he  eat.” 

Our  nationals  at  present  not  built  along  these  lines.  The  laws 
protect  the  man  who  has  rather  than  the  man  who  dp^§,  They 


50 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist. 

stand  for  the  sacredness  of  capital  rather  than  the  holiness  of 
labor.  They  avenge  promptly  and  savagely  any  damage  to  prop- 
erty, but  they  smile  and  are  lenient  to  any  offense  against  human 
life. 

A house  built  upon  the  sand  must  fall.  A nation  built  on 
such  a system  as  this  must  go  down.  History  shows  it  to  us. 
Rome  collapsed,  Egypt  collapsed,  Assyria  and  Babylonia  col- 
lapsed, when  the  right  of  property  were  exalted  above  those  of 
life.  So  will  the  American  nation  collapse,  and  cannot  but  col- 
lapse, if  it  continues  to  put  the  rights  of  property  above  the 
rights  of  life. 

Therefore,  any  indication  that  the  nation  is  changing  its  mind 
ab"Out  this  thing  is  an  indication  that  the  nation  will  be  saved. 
And  therefore,  the  tremendous  increase  in  the  Socialist  vote  at 
the  last  election  means  that  the  nation  will  live  and  not  die.  For 
that  vote  means  that  there  are  at  least  1,000,000  men  in  this 
country  who  put  life  above  property,  humanity  above  gold. 

Surely  it  is  evident  that  such  men  are  the  true  patriots. 
Blind  jingoism  lands  a people  in  disaster,  just  as  incurable  ego- 
tism lands  a man  in  ceaseless  trouble.  Wise  forethought  seeks  to 
establish  a nation  upon  sure  and  firm  foundations,  so  that  it  shall 
not  fall.  True  patriotism  recognizes  that  the  nation  is  a part 
of  humanity  and  is  subordinate  to  the  human  race  as  a whole; 
true  patriotism  seeks  to  amend  what  is  wrong,  and  to  establish 
what  is  right,  by  the  immutable  laws  of  the  universe  itself. 

Our  next  president  is  a man  of  great  knowledge  and  sin- 
gularly little  wisdom.  He  is  an  academic  sage,  even  if  an  eco- 
nomic ignoramus.  Yet  there  is  hope  for  the  nation  during  his 
administration.  He  is  capable  of  changing  his  mind  even  to  his 
own  disadvantage.  He  can  learn.  The  platform  on  which  he  was 
elected  is  a laughable  structure,  but  then  there  is  nothing  to 
prove  that  he  has  ever  read  it.  If  it  were  possible  for  single  men 
to  save  the  nation  I should  believe  him  to  be  capable  of  it. 

Again,  man  has  a right  to  life.  But  land  is  necessary  to  the 
exercise  of  that  right;  therefore  man  has  a right  to  the  use  of 
land,  and  it  cannot  become  private  property.  He^  that  owns  the 
land  is  master  of  those  who  live  upon  it,  and  can  force  them  to 


51 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist. 

give  him  the  product  of  their  labor  for  the  privilege  of  living.  If 
I owned  the  entire  earth,  I could  drive  every  human  being  into 
the  briny  deep.  I could  compel  the  multitude  to  serve  me  under 
the  stroke  of  the  lash,  or  crouch  as  minions  at  the  foot  of  my 
throne. 

Moreover,  the  only  basis  of  private  property  is  the  right  that 
a man  his  to  the  ownership  of  his  person,  and  his  powers  and 
faculties.  An  article  belongs  to  me  because  I have  made  it.  But 
if  I have  a right  to  the  product  of  my  labor  I have,  also,  a right 
to  the  material  upon  wMch  I expend  my  labor,  and  therefore  a 
right  to  the  land.  If  I have  no  right  to  the  land,  then  I have  no 
right  to  the  ownership  of  my  person  and  the  product  of  my  la- 
bor, for  these  rights  are  dependent  on  the  right  to  the  use  of 
the  land. 


LABORERS’  UNREST  IS  HEALTHY  SIGN,  SAYS  IRON- 
MASTER. 


Educated  Classes  Should  Welcome  Movement  to  Change  Con- 
ditions, Says  Carnegie. 


London,  Sept.  24. — In  a signed  statement  today  Andrew  Car- 
negie said:  “The  present  unrest  of  the  working  classes  through- 
out the  world  is  a healthy  sign.  The  unequal  distribution  of 
wealth  and  contrast  between  the  lives  of  the  rich  and  poor  passed 
unnoticed  in  early  days  and  was  therefore  possible. 

“Today  the  spirit  of  democracy  is  abroad  and  will  have  its 
way.  What  we  of  the  educated  class  have  to  do  is  to  welcome 
such  movements  of  the  spirit  and  head  and  by  regulated  action 
change  conditions.  When  such  remedial  change  comes  under  the 
reign  of  law  the  beneficial  effects  will  be  felt  by  all  classes,  not 
least  by  the  millionaire  class. 

“The  agitation  for  improved  conditions  amongst  the  masses 
is  another  symptom  of  a great  underlying  cause — the  good  things 
of  the  world  are  not  justly  divided.  This  does  not  mean  that  the 
drunken,  worthless  man  is  to  receive  the  reward  due  to  the  hon- 


52 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist. 

est,  sober  workman  with  his  children  school  and  a happy  home 
his  refuge.  Far  from  it.  Merit  must  always  count.  The  duty  of 
the  educated  leisured  classes  is  to  impress  upon  the  working 
classes  the  vital  necessities  of  order  under  law.  Impress  them 
with  this  truth,  that  they  will  gain  their  end  much  easier  and 
sooner  by  adherence  to  the  law  than  ihey  can  possibly  do  by  its 
violation.  Improvement  under  the  reign  of  law  should  be  the 
watchword.'' 

The  only  difference  between  a monarchy  and  a republic  is 
that  we  do  mot  call  our  idle  rich  kings,  dukes  and  princes.  We 
pat  ourselves  on  the  back  and  think  we  have  sidetracked  the 
nobility  and  made  wonderful  progress,  but  we  are  only  fooling 
ourselves/  We  have  planted  the  same  seed  and  it  must  boar  fruit. 
We  may  call  it  another  name  to  make  it  palatable.  We  know  in 
our  hearts  that  our  whole  system  is  putrid  and  rotten  to  the  core 
and  that  sooner  or  later  we  must  face  the  inevitable  when  pa- 
tience ceases  to  be  a virtue.  Did  I say  must,  then  I am  wrong, 
for  the  people  have  it  in  their  hands  to  change  it,  namely  So- 
cialism. 

No  government  has  ever  attenlpted  to  organize  industry  as  a 
whole  and  bring  it  under  control.  If  they  had,  governments 
would  have  lived  and  been  permanent.  The  establishment  of  a 
minimum  wage  will  assuredly  lighten  the  burden  of  women,  but 
will  not  abolish  all  economic  injustice. 

Baltimore  Girls  Get  Eight-Hour  Day. 

Baltimore — An  eight-hour  day  with  the  same  pay  as  re- 
ceived for  ten  hours  with  wage  increases  over  a certain  standard 
has  been  secured  by  the  Crown  Cork  and  Seal  Operatives'  Local 
Union  No.  14204.  This  organization  is  composed  mostly  of  girls 
who  are  employed  by  the  Crown  Cork  and  Seal  ComfTany.  Be- 
cause there  is  no  national  union  in  this  industry  the  union,  is 
affiliated  direct  to  the  American  Federation  of  Labor.  The  man- 
ner in  which  the  business  of  this  union  is  conducted,  together 
with  gains  made,  proves  that  women  can  organize  and  can  im- 
prove working  conditions,  as  well  as  men,  without  the  interfer- 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist.  5^ 

ence  of  weil-meaning  outsiders,  who  advise  girls  in  all  manner 
of  ways  except  urge  them  to  organize  and  help  themselves. 

A.  F.  of  L.  Organizer  Eichelberger  assisted  the  girls  in  nego- 
tiating their  new  wage  scale,  and  this  trade  union  says : 

'The  union  was  formed  about  four  years  ago,  the  present 
agreement  being  the  second  made  with  the  company. 

"The  first  agreement  amounted  in  the  aggregate,  to  about 
$52,000  per  year  increase  in  wages;  the  one  just  obtained 
amounts  to  about  $49,000  per  annum.  So  in  a little  over  four 
years  the  American  Federation  of  Labor  has  procured  over  $257,- 
000  for  these  girls.  Does  womem's  organization  pay?  What 
other  set  of  working  girls  in  Baltimore  have  the  eight-hour  day?"’ 

"After  Us,  the  Deluge.” 

It  appears  that  the  rich  men  of  the  country  never  will  learn 
sense.  About  seventeen  years  ago,  Mrs.  Bradley  Martin  gave  a 
ball,  costing;  approximately  $100,000.  Times  were  hard  then. 
Only  a short  time  before  Coxey's  armies  were  marching  to  Wash- 
ington to  present  a petition  to  congress  with  "booth  on.”  The 
Bradley  Martin  ball  fanned  the  flames  of  discontent.  It  was  too 
much  of  a contrast  with  the  soup  houses  then  maintained  by 
nearly  every  city  in  the  country. 

Shortly  thereafter  occurred  the  famous  "Seeley  dinner,” 
when  "Little  Egypt,”  or  her  understudy,  emerged  from  a huge 
pie  and  did  the  muscle  dance  in  the  nude,  or  nearly  so.  About 
the  same  time  John  Wanamaker's  son  gave  a twenty  thousand 
dollar  dinner  to  twenty  guests  in  Paris. 

The  storm  broke,  and  these  extravagances  were  denounced 
from  pulpit  and  press  and  Socialism  began  its  great  forward 
movement  in  the  United  States.  Nine  years  ago,  James  Hazen 
Hyde  gave  his  dinner  in  New  York  which  resulted  in  the  com- 
plete reorganization  of  three  of  the  great  insurance  companies 
of  the  country  and  the  writing  of  "Frenzied  Finance”  by  Tom 
Lawson.  ^ 

The  latest  foolishness  on  the  part  of  the  rich  is  a banquet 
by  the  packer^  to  be  given  on  the  night  of  September  22,  at  the 
Congress  hoteUin  Chicago,  at  a cost  of  $150,000.  According  to 


54 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist 

program,  when  the  guests  arrive,  they  will  find  ‘Teacock  alley,” 
the  promenade  for  the  society  folk,  converted  jnto  an  English 
lane  fringed  with  fields  of  grain,  through  which  will  run  rabbits 
and  wild  fowl.  Through  the  lane  the  guests  will  be  led  into  a 
dining  room  where  tables  will  be  laid  in  a grove  flanked  by  rose 
bushes  in  full  bloom  and  a forest  of  trees. 

Around  the  room  will  be  wire  screening,  back  of  which  will 
be  several  live  foxes  which  will  be  hunted  to  death  by  a troop  of 
western  horsemen  with  a pack  of  fox  hounds.  Cabaret  perform- 
ers, garbed  as  hunters  and  huntresses,  will  celebrate  the  end  of 
the  chase  by  singing  old  English  hunting  songs. 

The  banqueters  are  rich  men,  able  to  pay  for  it  all,  but  the 
country  will  imagine  it  knows  where  responsibility  for  much  of 
the  high  price  of  beef  rests,  and  there  will  be  dissatisfaction  and 
more  Socialists.’ 

It  is  a strange  thing  that  the  very  rich  never  seem  able  to 
read  the  handwriting  on  the  wall.  They  seem  to  have  no  inkling 
of  the  trend  of  things.  They  seem  content  to  say  with  those 
French  nobles  prior  to  the  revolution,  ‘‘After  us,  the  deluge.” 

Typical  of  the  slaves  that  lived  under  fear  of  the  Dragon  Su- 
perstition were  the  wretched  creatures  that  threw  themselves  in 
hundreds  under  the  wheels  of  the  car  of  Juggernaut,  and  the 
wretched  creatures  sacrificed  on  the  altar  of  the  dreadful  gods  in 
Old  Mexico,  and  the  miserable  Africans  put  to  death  in  cruel 
torture  by  some  rain  doctor  who  said  they  were  responsible  for 
the  lack  of  rain. 

Horrible  torture  has  been  inflicted  upon  man  by  his  fellow 
man,  in  the  name  of  the  dragon  of  superstitution.  Thousands 
have  been  burned  alive,  torn  on  the  rack,  tortured  with  the 
thumbscrew — devilish  and  fiendish  have  been  the  cruelties  in- 
vented in  the  name  of  superstition,  and  applied  by  the  ingenuity 
of  those  that  made  their  living  as  agents  of  superstition. 

Take  your  courts,  for  instance.  What  are  they  but  machines 
organized  for  the  people,  to  obey  the  people.  What  are  the  judges 
but  the  paid  servants  of  the  people,  hired,  well  paid  and  well 
treated  to  administer  justice.  Why  should  they  not  be  well 
treated  while  they  treat  the  people  well?  Why  should  they  not 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist.  55 

be  looked  upon  with  great  respect,  as  long,  and  only  as  long,  as 
they  are  in  a large  sense  respectable? 

Yet,  is  there  not  a superistition  about  the  courts,  a foolish 
dread  of  the  unlimited  power  of  Mr.  Jones  who  has  been  taken 
from  a corporation  office  and  put  on  the  bench?  Do  not  people 
need  to  get  rid  of  that  nonsense,  and  kill  that  foolish  superstition  T 

When  Superstition  Dies,  Wealth  and  Happiness  Increase. 

When  men  stop  fearing  that  which  does  not  exist,  their 
minds  set  free,  work  better,  produce  more  and  get  more. 

A superstitious  person  is  poor  and  ignorant  always. 

We  are  taught  to  believe  implicitly  in  the  superstition  that 
the  money  of  the  people,  including  the  credit  of  government, 
should  be  used  chiefly  to  increase  the  wealth  of  bankers  and 
financiers. 

You  see  the  biggest  city  in  the  United  States,  New  York, 
humbly  submissive  through  its  officials  to  the  proposition  that 
only  one  man  can  supply  the  money  that  the  city  needs — whereas 
in  reality  that  man  has  not,  all  together,  as  much  money  as  the 
citizens  pay  in  taxes  in  any  one  single  year. 

We  have  the  bankers  throughout  the  country  holding  on 
deposit  the  money  of  the  nation — which  belongs  to  the  people — 
and  lending  it  out  to  farmers  and  to  business  men  at  usurious 
rates,  or  refusing  to  lend  it  at  all  when  they  happen  to  get  fright- 
ened about  conditions. 

Knowledge  the  Asset  of  a Nation. 

A government  is  an  individual  made  up  of  individual  units 
and  its  position  in  the  world  of  nations  is  determined  by  its 
knowledge,  not  by  the  number  of  individuals,  therefore,  the 
fundamental  asset  of  a nation  is  knowledge.  This  being  true,  the 
first  purpose  of  any  nation  should  be  to  acquire  knowledge  to  this 
end,  and  the  child  from  its  birth  should  be  considered  an  asset 
of  the  nation,  and  placed  under  its  fostering  care  during  its  de- 
velopment, and  as  the  education  of  the  child  is  for  usefulness  in 
the  field  of  industry  and  administration  of  government,  there 
should  be  no  break  between  these  departments.  The  system  should 


56  The  Religion  of  a SocialisJL 

be  a sequence  of  steps  by  which  the  individual  rises  from  one 
plane  of  intelligence  to  another  throughout  his  life,  thus  would 
a nation  subserve  the  greatest  of  all  interests — the  intellectual 
advancement  of  the  nation  as  a nation  and  provide  the  means 
whereby  each  individual  would  have  the  opportunity  to  acquire 
knowledge,  advance  to  industry  and  finally  to  the  direction  of 
government  by  systematic  progression.  Under  this  system  there 
would  be  no  break  in  the  progress  of  the  individual;  he  would  be 
an  intellectual  asset  to  be  encouraged  and  assisted  m ev^ry  way 
by  the  nation  if  only  one  in  a thousand  so  educated  should  prove 
to  be  an  Edison. 

Fewer  Marriages  Because  People  Think. 

New  York  Conservation  Commissioner  E.  E.  Rittenhouse, 
formerly  of  Denver,  asks,  ‘‘Why  are  there  more  than  17,000,000 
unmarried  women  in  the  United  States? 

“Never,’’  he  says,  “has  a nation  been  so  prosperous  or  so 
within  reach  of  the  luxuries  of  life.  Yet  people  do  not  marry. 
There  is  something  wrong.  What  is  it?” 

There  are  many  reasons  why  people  do  not  marry.  One  is 
the  high  cost  of  living,  for  while  the  nation  is  undoubtedly  pros- 
perous, the  golden  stream  does  not  wash  by  every  man’s  door  to 
an  extent  that  enables  him  to  support  a family  in  any  decent 
comfort. 

The  main  reason,  however,  that  there  has  been  what  Mr. 
Wegg  called  a decliil^  and  fall  off  in  matrimony  is  because  peo- 
ple have  begun  to  use  their  heads  instead  of  their  hearts  in  de- 
ciding the  matter.  Cold  logic  has  superseded  the  mating  in- 
stinct in  dealing  with  the  problem. 

In  former  times  men  and  women  married  simply  because 
they  were  attracted  to  some  member  of  the  opposite  sex.  Whether 
they  could  feed  or  clothe  a family,  or  whether  they  were  likly  to 
bequeath  some  terrible  inheritance  to  their  offspring,  did  not 
enter  into  their  calculation.  They  went  it  blind  without  regard 
to  consequences  to  themselves  or  any  one  else.  Now  intelligent 
men  and  women  consider  before  marriage  whether  they  have  a 
right  to  marry  and  bring  into  the  world  deformed  and  deseased 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist,  S'? 

children,  or  children  that  they  will  have  to  sell  into  child  slavery 
becau"fee  of  poverty. 

Also  men  and  women  are  becoming  afraid  to  marry.  They 
see  that  nine-tenths  ^ of  the  marriages  in  the  world  are  failures, 
so  far  as  bringing  any  happiness  to  either  husband  or  wife,  and 
so  they  decide  that  single  blessedness  is  better  than  double 
wretchedness. 

Only  a few  days  ago  a brilliant  young  physician,  who  has 
already  achieved  success,  safd  to  me  that  nothing  on  earth,  after 
what  he  had  seen  of  matrimonial  misery  through  the  practice  of 
his  profession,  could  ever  induce  him  to  marry.  He  recognized 
that  the  ideal  marriage  was  the  happiest  lot  on  earth,  but  the 
chances  against  it  were  too  great.  He  was  playing  no  hundred- 
to-one  shot  at  happiness. 

As  a rule  the  income  which  a young  man  earns,  while  pos- 
sibly sufficient  to  secure  a fair  degree  of  comfort  for  himself, 
does  not  suffice  for  funding  a family. 

I want  to  tell  you  right  now  that  a man  who  had  thirty  dol- 
lars a week  and  a wife  and  six  children  to  support  here  in  New 
York,  unless  he  went  into  a tenement  and  dressed  in  a suit  of 
black  paint  and  lived  on  breakfast  food  advertisements,  walked 
to  and  from  his  work  in  bare  feet  (carrying  hose  and  shoes  in 
his  hand  to  save  shoe  leather  and  married  a red-headed  girl  to 
save  coal  bills)  would  have  a hard  job  to  live,  with  food  and  rent 
at  their  present  prices.  It's  that  dread  of  the  future,  the 
terrible  uncertainties  of  life  under  our  present  social  system — 
no  man  knowing  unless  he  is  a government  employe  when  his  job 
will  be  taken  from  him  and  knowing  that  the  older  he  gets  and 
the  more  he  adds  to  his  family  and  expenses,  the  greater  the  risk 
he  is  running — that  makes  a man  pause  and.  think.  The  m.an 
who  is  on  a salary,  is  ever  drawing  nearer  to  that  day  when  his 
boss  will  say:  “Hello,  Jones;  I notice  you're  gettiffg  bald  headed; 
lots  of  gray  hairs,  too;  got  a family,  too,  I suppose,  and  I guess 
there  is  not  quite  enough  money  left  over  f-rom  your  salary  to 
feed  you  well  enough  to  keep  your  strength  and  vitality  up  to  that 
point  where  you  can  give  me  as  much  work  as  I could  get  out  of 
a younger  man.  Let  me  see,  you  have  been  with  me  twenty  years ; 


58 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist. 

you  are  now  fOrty-six  years  old,  I believe,  and  drawing  twenty* 
five  dollars  a week.  Well,  you  leave  Saturday.  I'll  put  a younger 
man  in  your  place  at  fifteen  dollars  per  and  that  will  save  me 
five  hundred  dollars  a year,  and  I'll  get  more  work  out  of  the 
younger  man  than  I can  out  of  you."  Then  Jones  goes  home, 
spends  six  months  trying  to  get  another  job,  and  finding  he  can't 
get  anything  to  do  and  that  his  savings  are  exhausted  jumps  off 
the  dock,  gets  under  a street  car,  or  puts  a bullet  through  his 
brain.  What  happens  to  Jones'  family,  when  he  is  gone?  Don't 
inquire  too  closely,  it  might  break  your  heart.  If  you  knew  all 
that  Mrs.  Jones  had  to  go  through  when  the  bread  winner  was 
gone,  you'd  be  sorry  for  Mrs.  Jones.  Why  didn't  Jones  save  some 
money,  you'll  ask.  He  did,  i)ut  six  months  without  work  used  it 
all  up.  Cupid  in  these  days  is  having  his  troubles.  Those  who 
rush  blindly  into  marriage  are  generally  the  thoughtless  and 
ignorant  half-grown  boys  who  cannot  earn  enough  to  support 
themselves.  The  man  who  has  education  and  a conscience,  linked 
with  a small  salary  (and  there  are  tens  of  thousands  of  such 
men)  sits  down  and  calmly  figures  out  what  he  can  do  with  his 
fifteen  to  eighteen  dollars  a week.  He  can't  say  that  in  two  or 
three  years  I'll  be  getting  more  money.  Of  course  he  ought  to  be 
able  to  say  that,  but  the  chances  of  promotion  in  the  business 
world  today  are  for  the  mass  of  men  very  slight.  The  rule  is  to 
starve  a man  on  a salary  that  he  can  merely  exist  on,  and  let  him 
work  gradually  up  to  a salary  on  which  he  can  live  with  a fair 
amount  of  comfort,  but  not  a salary  on  which  two  or  six  or  eight 
can  live.  The  business  man  reckons  today  that  certain  posi- 
tions are  worth  so  much  and  no  more.  When  an  employe  gets 
dissatisfied  because  he  can't  get  more,  he  is  allowed  to  go,  and  by 
the  time  he  is  getting  a salary  on  which  he  can  live  with  fair 
comfort  he  is  way  into  the  thirties  and  nearing  the  danger  zone. 
When  I tell  you  that  the  last  census  showed  that  the  wage  earners 
of  the  United  States  produce  yearly  more  than  two  thousand  dol- 
lars' worth  of  marketable  product  per  head  and  only  receive  back 
a quarter  of  that  sum  in  wages,  you  may  know  that  higher  wages 
could  be  paid,  and  if  the  law  set  a minimum  wage  for  men  and 
women,  they  would  be  paid  and  paid  mighty  quick.  ThoSe  firm^ 


59 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist 

that  couldn't  pay  living  wages  would  and  should  go  out  of  busi- 
ness. That  matter  has  been  thoroughly  thrashed  out  and  settled 
in  Australia  and  New  Zealand.  Every  employe  today  is  regarded 
as  in  investment,  and  the  one  great  object  of  business  is  to  make 
every  investment  produce  the  last  possible  cent  in  dividends.  Do 
you  get  that?  We  are  foolishly  told  that  the  merchant  princes 
in  our  big  cities  cannot  raise  wages,  at  least  one  of  them  cannot 
unless  they  all  do,  because  the  man  who  raised  wages  without  the 
others  doing  the  same,  would  be  at  a great  disadvantage,  as  all 
the  other  men  would  be  able  to  undersell  him.  Now  that  is  one 
of  the  meanest  little  lies  or  rather  one  of  the  meanest  big  lies 
that  was  ever  foisted  on  an  ignorant  and  exploited  public,  and 
lying  newspapers  take  up  that  falsehood  and  ram  it  down  the 
people's  throats,  because  each  of  the  big  merchant  princes  spends 
a thousand  dollars  a day  throughout  the  year,  Sundays  .included 
(and  that's  $365,000  a year,  remember),  for  a daily  page  of  ad- 
vertising, in  the  big  metropolitan  news  sheets.  Men  receiving 
this  enormous  sum  for  advertising,  which  alone  makes  it  possible 
for  them  to  do  business,  are  not  going  to  fight  for  higher  wages 
and  incur  the  enmity  and  lose  the  patronage  of  the  big  adver- 
tisers. A newspaper  that  is  getting  that  amount  of  advertising 
from  a merchant  will  naturally  defend  him  and  his  class,  even 
though  he  is  sending  every  girl  in  his  employ  straight  to  the 
devil,  and  ninety  per  cent  of  you  who  read  this  would  do  the  same 
thing  and  you  know  it.  It's  a vicious  circle  and  you'd  get  in  that 
circle  if  the  chance  ever  came  your  way.  There  is  a merchant  in 
New  York  who  pays  higher  wages  than  any  of  the  other  stores, 
and  who  charges  no  more  for  his  goods  and  who,  in  fact,  sells 
better  goods  than  his  competitors.  People  flock  to  this  man's 
store  because  he  has  adopted  a live  and  let  live  policy,  and  he  has 
adopted  it  because  he  is  a man  of  principle  and  honor,  a true 
Christian  who  believes  in  the  golden  rule  and  lives  up  to  it.  All 
the  other  stores  could  do  as  he  does,  but  they  are  too  contemptibly 
mean  to  do  it,  and  as  long  as  they  can  get  girls  to  work  for  next 
to  nothing  a week,  even  though  they  know  what  is  the  conse- 
quence of  paying  them  the  salaries  they  do,  they  are  going  to 
continue  doing  it,  and  the  cowardly  press  is  afraid  to  raise  Its 


60 


The  Religion  of  d^Socialist 

voice  in  protest.  When  the  Illinois  Vice  Commission  was  in  ses- 
sion out  in  Chicago,  the  most  horrible  facts  that  came  to  light 
were  never  reported,  and  paid  agents  of  the  big  business  houses 
filled  the  papers  with  letters  supposedly  written  by  white  slave 
victims,  stating  that  low  wages  had  nothing  to  do  with  their 
going  wrong.  Now  that  is  a positive  fact  known  to  those  who 
know  anything  at  all.  But  remember,  half  the  news  never  gets 
into  print.  Wealth  is  all  powerful  and  can  open  and  close  mouths 
just  as  it  wishes.  There  is  a conspiracy  of  silence,  and  if  you 
were  to  take  an  article  to  the  big  magazines  in  New  York,  telling 
anything  for  instance  detrimental  to  the  meat  industry,  although 
that  article  of  yours  was  full  of  facts  that  the  public  is  crazy  to 
know,  there  are  only  one  or  two  publications  (and  those  insignifi- 
cant ones)  that  would  print  your  article.  So  the  man  who  is 
figuring  on  getting  married,  crumples  up  the  piece  of  paper  on 
which  he  has  figured,  sticks  the  pencil  in  his  ^pocket,  heaves  a 
sigh  of  regret,  pushes  the  vision  of  the  home  with  the  girl  of  his 
heart  aside,  and  sneaks  off  to  his  little  hall  bedroom,  lights  his 
pipe  (which  is  now  his  wife  and  comforter)  with  trust  tobacco, 
tobacco  that  used  to  be  sold  by  independent  merchants  who  have 
been  pushed  out  of  business,  and  writes  a letter  to  his  best  girl, 
who  is  probably  getting  six  dollars  a week  in  one  of  the  big  stores, 
and  tells  her  it’s  all  off.  She,  with  no  other  prospect  than  ‘‘six”  a 
week  in  front  of  her,  takes  the  first  automobile  ride  that  is  of- 
fered, has  a late  supper  with  wine  on  the  side  with  the  gentle- 
man who  owns  the  car,  and  you  can  guess  the  rest.  If  all  men 
and  women  workers  in  every  line  of  effort  were  organized  just 
as  dollars  are  organized,  there  would  be  fe^er  bachelors  and  little 
need  of  taxing  them.  I am  glad  you  believe  in  woman  suffrage. 
If  you  had  said  you  didn’t,  I’d  have  sent  the  Goat  all  the  way  to 
Texas  to  have  butted  some  sense  into  you. 

It  is  greed  and  selfishness  that  cause  the  care  and  worry 
that  now  weighs  down  the  human  race  and  make  life  a tortue 
and  a hell  for  millions  of  people.  The  heaviest  burdens  are 
placed  on  the  weakest  backs,  that  is  why  women  suffer  so  much 
and  perish  long  ere  their  prime,  and  that  is  why  two  million  little 
children  are'wearing  out  their  poor  little  lives  in  the  industrial 


61 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist. 

infernos  of  this  tremendously  wealthy  land.  Those  who  do  the 
heaviest  duties  and  most  dangerous  work  get  the  least  pay,  \vhile 
those  who  do  nothing  or  next  to  nothing,  gather  in  all  that  makes 
life  worth  while.  Instead  of  lightening  the  burdens  of  humanity, 
organized  wealth  forces  masses  to  accept  the  lowest  possible  wage 
in  payment  for  the  things  they  create,  and  then  makes  they  pay 
exorbitant  prices  for  the  articles  their  toil  and  skill  have  brought 
into  existence.  Thus  are  the  workers  squeezed  going  and  coming, 
thus  are  their  burdens  added  to  and  their  faces  ground  between 
the  upper  millstones  of  low  wages  and  the  lower  millstone  of  high 
prices.  This  is  the  despotism  of  dollars,  the  cruel  and  heartless 
system  that  places  the  burden  on  those  least  able  to  bear  them, 
upon  weak  women,  sickly  children  and  underfed,  poorly  nour- 
ished men,  and  the  men  responsible  for  these  conditions  are 
called  good  Christian  men,  and  some  of  them  attend  church  on 
Sunday.  They  worship  Mammon  feverishly  and  frantically  six 
days  a week,  and  God  profunctorily  for  an  hour  on  the  Sabbath. 
We  must  not,  however,  wonder  at  the  frailty  and  shortcomings  of 
human  nature  when  we  consider  what  we  have  come  up  from,  and 
what  we  were  in  the  last  wild  savage  brutal  blood-thirsty  and 
murderous  age.  It  is  marvelous,  considering  the  tens  of  thou- 
sands of  years  of  barbarism  that  still  exists  within  us  that  we 
do  as  well  as  we  do.  Remember,  that  we  are  still  but  mere  human 
microbes^  groping  in  the  dark,  clinging  to  this  little  ball  of  earth 
as  a fly  clings  to  the  driving  wheel  of  a great  engine  hurtling 
madly  through  limitless  space  surrounded  by  cosmic  wonders. 
Millions  of  other  worlds  in  the  making  and  unmaking  all  about  us 
is  planetary  systems  infinitely  greater  than  our  own  and  all  con- 
trolled by  one  supreme  mind  that  lights  the  evening  stars,  paints 
the  wayside  flower,  sends  the  sunshine  and  the  rain,  the  seed 
time  and  the  harvest,  and  who  is  slowly  putting  into  our  hearts 
and  minds,  slowly  because  we  are  too  weak,  too  brutal,  too  selfish 
to  absorb  God’s  ideas  faster  than  we  do;  the  desire  to  be  better 
and  do  better,  the  de&ire  to  be  less  animal  and  be  more  like  the 
One  who  taught  us  to  love  our  neighbors  like  ourselves,  to  do  unto 
others  as  we  would  have  others  do  unto  us,  and  who  said  it  was 
easier  for  a rich  man  to  go  through-the  eye  of  a needle  than  to 


62  The  Religion  of  a Socialist, 

enter  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  and  who  promised  that  the  meek 
should  inherit  the  earth.  Follow  in  His  footsteps  and  we  have 
love  ruling  the  earth,  the  love  that  makes  us  bear  one  another's 
burdens,  that  sends  the  factory  waif  into  the  fields  to  play,  the 
female  millworker  to  her  home  and  children,  and  gives  the  pallid 
consumptive  sweatshop  workers  good  pay,  reasonable  hours  of  toil 
and  a sanitary  environment.  Here  is  the  love  that  humanity 
craves,  the  love  that  not  only  lifts  but  abolishes  all  burdens,  drives 
the  hog  and  the  devil  out  of  man,  makes  all  humankind  brothers 
and  leaves  the  race  refined,  purified,  inspired  and  deified.  Slowly 
but  surely  we  are  learning  the  lesson  that  Christ  taught  us,  learn- 
ing to  take  care  off  the  shoulders  of  others,  learning  to  become 
less  swinish  and  more  Godlike.  It  is  a long,  tedious  struggle  and 
millions  will  go  down  to  death  and  be  crushed  by  the  heel  of 
greed,  power  and  might,  ere  love  finally  conquers,  but  love  will 
conquer  in  the  end  and  is  conquering  daily,  for  God  has  willed  it 
and  God  is  love. 

World’s  Production  of  Staple  Crops. 

That  the  annual  increase  in  the  world's  production  of  the 
staple  crops  has  been  two  and  one-half  times  faster  than  the 
growth  of  population  throughout  the  civilized  world  is  the  con- 
clusion reached  in  a report  prepared  by  Nat  C.  Murray  of  the 
Crop  Reporting  Board,  Department  of  Agricuuture.  Mr.  Murray 
figures  that  the  rate  of  increase  in  products  in  ten  years  from 
1895-99  to  1905-09  was  25  per  cent,  or  an  average  of  2^/^  per  cent 
a year,  whereas  the  population  of  the  civilized  world,  including 
China,  increased  at  the  rate  of  about  one  per  cent  a year.  The 
world's  production  of  five  cereals  comprising  the  people's  main 
breadstuff,  in  the  period  of  1895-99  averaged  533,000,000,000 
pounds;  in  the  following  five-year  period  it  averaged  594,000,- 
000,000  pounds ; in  1905-09  to  666,000,000,000.  Animal  products, 
according  to  this  inquiry  have  increased  greatly  within  the  past 
decade  in  proportion  to  numbers  of  live  stock  from  twenty-six 
countries  outside  of  the  United  States.  Available  figures  r>how 
that  the  aggregate  of  supply  of  animal  products,  as  in  the  case 
of  crop  production,  has  kept  pace  with  the  population  during  the 
past  decade.  The  conclusion  is  that  recent  advances  in  the  cost 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist  , 63 

of  living  are  not  due  to  scarcity  or  lessening  of  agricultural 
products. — Bradstreet  s,  ^ 

The  Curse  of  War. 

Would  it  not  be  a strange  sight  to  see  a banker,  bishop,  a 
railway  president,  a coal  baron  and  anti-labor  injunction  judge, 
a U.  S.  senator  all  hanging  on  stakes  on  a pit  with  scores  of  other 
men  piled  on  top  of  them,  all  cursing,  screaming,  groaning,  bleed- 
ing and  dying,  following  the  flag?  No,  you  won't  find  them 
there,  and  there  is  a reason.  I will  explain : Friend,  don't  curse 
the  militiamen  and  soldiers.  No,  they  are  our  brothers.  Listen, 
oh,  listen,  you  poor  betrayed  workers.  If  the  masters  want  blood, 
let  them  cut  their  own  throats.  Let  those  who  want  victories  go 
to  the  firing  line  and  get  them.  What  is  war?  They  say  ‘‘War 
is  Hell."  Well,  let  those  who  want  hell  go  to  hell.  President 
William  H.  Taft,  as  secretary  of  war,  and  immediately  following 
war,  has  said  veneral  diseases  were  again  by  far  the  most  im- 
portant diseases  affecting  the  efficiency  of  the  army  during  the 
year.  Our  annual  national  expense  of  militarism,  $450,000,000, 
would  pay  the  annual  college  expenses  of  1,800,000  young  men 
and  women.  Mother,  is  your  five-year-old  boy  strong,  healthy 
and  handsome?  “Yes."  Well,  that  is  fine,  but  think  of  him  at 
the  age  of  twenty  in  slaughtering  clothes,  tricked  into  the  army. 
You  see,  mother,  in  a war  some  mothers'  boys  must  be  butchered, 
and  for  $13  a month  your  boy  can  go  to  war,  lose  a leg  and  when 
he  comes  home,  if  he  comes  at  all,  it  will  cost  him,  say,  $100  to 
buy  a wooden  leg  and  he  perhaps  won't  have  the  price. 

:.Let  the  planet  Earth  never  again  be  cursed  with  this  heart- 
less and  cruel  profit  system,  where  the  father  is  quarreling  with 
the  mother,  where  the  sisters  can't  trust  their  brothers,  where  the 
members  of  the  family  are  scattered  to  the  foud  winds,  and  the 
daughters  of  the  land  seek  refuge  in  houses  of  prostitution,  while 
the  flower  of  manhood  dies  on  the  battlefield  for  the  greed  of 
gold. 

Tomorrow  if  war  w^re  declared  between  the  United  States 
and  any  great  foreign  nation,  millions  of  men  would  offer  their 
services  and  sacrifice  fortunes  and  lives.  Why  should  not  this 


64 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist. 

spirit  prevail  should  the  people  call  for  these  men  for  the  pur- 
pose of  building  a new  industrial  machine?  The  first  would 
mean  war,  destruction  and  the  loss  of  life;  the  second  would 
mean  peace,  construction  and  the  birth  of  a new  civilization.  One 
would  destroy,  the  other  would  build ; one  would  cost  as  much  as 
the  other  and  in  either  case  the  people  would  have  to  paj^  the  price. 

WHAT  IS  WAR? 

War  Is: 

For  working  class  homes — emptiness. 

For  working  class  wives — heartaches. 

For  working  class  mothers — loneliness. 

For  working  class  children — orphanage. 

For  working  class  sweethearts — agony. 

For  peace — defeat; 

For  death — a harvest. 

For  buzzards — a banquet. 

For  the  grave — victory. 

For  worms — a feast. 

For  nations — debts. 

For  justice — nothing. 

For  'Thou  shalt  not  kilF' — boisterous  laughter. 

For  "Put  up  thy  sword'' — a sn^r. 

For  Christ — contempt. 

For  bankers— bonds,  interest. 

For  big  manufacturers — business  profits. 

For  preachers  on  both  sides — ferocious  prayers  for  victory. 

For  leading  business  men,  leading  politicians,  leading  edu- 
cators, leading  preachers,  leading  editors,  leading  lecturers — for 
all  these  windy  patriots  who  talk  bravely  of  war — never  positions 
as  privates  in  the  army,  up  close  where  they  are  likely  to  get 
their  delicately  perfumed  flesh  torn  to  pieces. 

Pennsylvania’s  Human  Scrap-pile. 

Pennsylvania  is  reaping  the  harvest  of  child  labor  and  reck- 
less exploitations  of  adult  labor.  Children  of  the  mill  and  mine 
who  are  taken  at  tender  age,  squeezed  dry  and  thrown  upon  the 


65 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist. 

industrial  scrap  heap,  have  been  piling  up  for  years.  The  maimed 
and  broken  workmen  of  the  coal  and  steel  trust  have  been  piling 
up  for  years.  Pennsylvania  now  has  over  7,000,000  inhabitants 
and  600,000  persons  in  the  state  receive  public  charity — one  in 
twelve  in  Pennsylvania.  The  Cradle  of  Protection. 

Says  Labor  Is  Denied  Full  Toil  Product. 

Kansas  City,  Aug.  28. — ‘We  find  the  basic  cause  of  indus- 
trial dissatisfaction  to  be  low  wages.  Or,  stated  in  another  way, 
the  fact  that  the  workers  of  the  nation,  through  compulsory  and 
oppressive  methods,  legal  and  illegal,  are  denied  the  full  product 
of  their  toil.'^ 

This  sums  up  the  report  to  congress  given  out  today  by 
Chairman  Frank  Walsh,  of  the  now  extinct  federal  industrial 
relations  commission.  It  comprises  the  personal  findings  of 
Walsh  and  is  signed  by  Commissioners  Lennan,  O'Connell  and 
Garretson. 

The  report  denounces  big  employers  of  great  wealth  who  re- 
fuse to  permit  unionization  of  their  employes,  and  “who  pay 
small  wages  to  bread  winners  of  families,  while  they  enjoy  plenty, 
although  they  never  even  visit  their  shops." 

It  makes  the  declaration  that  “unrest  among  the  workers  in 
industry  has  grown  to  proportions  that  already  menace  the  social 
good  will  and  peace  of  the  nation." 

The  report  scores  the  employment  of  state  militia  in  strike 
situations,  declaring  that  this  method  “has  bred  a bitter  hos- 
tility to  the  militia  system  among  members  of  labor  organiza- 
tions, and  states  have  been  unable  to  enlist  wage  earners  for  this 
second  line  of  the  nation's  defense.  It  declares  employers  from 
coast  to  coast  have  created  and  maintained  small  private  armies 
of  armed  men  to  suppress  striking  employes  by  deporting,  im- 
prisoning, assaulting  and  killing  their  leaders." 

The  employer  spy  system  is  declared  to  be  one  of  the  great- 
est fomenters  of  suspicion  and  distrust  among  workers  of  their 
employers.  Courts,  legislatures  and  governors,  the  report 
charges,  have  been  rightfully  accused  of  serving  the  employers 
to  defeat  justice  and  pervert  the  institutions  of  the  country. 


66  The  Religion  of  a Socialist. 

‘'Citizens  numbering  millions,”  says  the  report,  “smart  un- 
der a sense  of  injustice  and  oppression. 

“We  find  the  unrest  described  to  be  but  the  latest  manifesta- 
tion of  the  age-long  struggle  of  the  race  for  freedom  of  oppor- 
tunity for  every  individual  to  live  his  life  to  its  highest  ends. 
As  the  nobles  of  England  wrung  their  independence  from  King 
John,  and  as  the  tradesmen  of  France  broke  through  the  ring  of 
privilege  enclosing  the  three  estates,  so  today  the  millions  who 
serve  society  in  arduous  labor  on  the  highways,  aloft  on  scaf- 
foldings, and  by  the  sides  of  whirling  machines,  are  demanding 
that  they,  too,  and  their  children,  shall  enjoy  all  of  the  blessings 
that  justify  and  make  beautiful  this  life. 

“And  while  vast  inherited  fortunes,  representing  zero  in 
social  service  to  the  credit  of  their  possessors,  automatically 
treble  in  volume,  two-thirds  of  those  who  toil  from  eight  to  twelve 
hours  a day  receive  less  than  enough  to  support  themselves  and 
their  families  in  decency  and  comfort.  From  cradle  to  the  grave 
they  live  in  shadow  of  the  fear  that  their  only  resource — their 
opportunity  to  toil — shall  be  taken  away  from  them  through  sick- 
ness, caprice  of  a foreman,  or  the  fortunes  of  industry.” 

NOT  ONE  CHANCE  IN  TWENTY. 

Governor  Ferguson  of  Texas  told  the  Industrial  Relations 
Commission  on  March  16  that  the  tenant  farmers  in  Texas  have 
not  one  chance  in  fifty  of  becoming  a home  owner.  And  still 
the  cry  is  raised  by  the  unthinking — “Back  to  the  Land!” 

“We  have,  according  to  the  income  tax  returns,  44  families, 
with  incomes  of  $1,000,000  or  more,  whose  members  perform  lit- 
tle or  no  useful  service,  but  whose  aggregate  income,  totaling  at 
least  fifty  millions  per  year,  are  equivalent  to  the  earnings  of 
100,000  wage  earners,  at  the  average  rate  of  $500  per  year.” — 
Rrom  Press  Abstract  of  Report  of  United  States  Commission  on 
Industrial  Relations. 

For  in  the  brain  of  the  lowest  of  our  ancestors  there  was  the 
spark  of  CO-OPERATION.  And  the  modern  city  of  today  and 
all  great  material  achievements  are  the  result  of  co-operation — 
one  man  helping  and  working  with  his  fellows,  applied  the  spark 


67 


• The  Religion  of  a Socialist 

of  co-operation  that  built  the  city  upon  which  he  gazes,  do  not 
forget  that  co-operation  has  only  begun  its  work. 

Men  today,  after  their  fashion,  are  still  isolated  cave 
dwellers. 

Go  out  to  the  valley  where  the  coal  mine  comes  up  from  the 
ground  in  a black,  grimy  building.  You  will  see  scattered  along 
the  side  of  that  valley  houses  in  which  men  and  women  live  not 
much  more  happily  than  those  that  watched  the  mammoth  go  by. 

And  those  that  live  in  somewhat  greater  comfort  in  the 
cities,  in  flats  and  tenements,  are  cave  dwellers  in  THEIR  way. 
They  also  watch  the  mammoth  go  by,  and,  isolated,  can  do 
nothing. 

Great  wealth,  like  the  mammoth,  walks  up  and  down  the  land, 
with  a power  that  none  can  challenge. 

Monopoly  is  the  mammoth,  and  the  people  are  as  helpless 
against  it  today  as  those  old  cave  men,  before  they  combined, 
were  helpless  against  the  hairy  mammoth,  in  their  valley. 

Men  have  combined  to  build  pyramids,  and  combined  more 
wisely  to  build  schools  and  great  buildings. 

They  have  not  yet  combined  to  control  and  own  that  which 
is  really  important  in  the  world. 

As  separate,  grimy,  suffering  individuals,  they  dig  the  coal 
and  haul  it  to  the  surface.  Then  the  mammoth  of  superior  in- 
telligence takes  it  from  them,  gives  them  barely  enough  to  live, 
and  squanders  the  millions  of  unearned  and  undeserved  profits. 

The  workers  and  producers  on  the  farm  struggle,  and  the 
consumers  in  the  cities  struggle. 

And  they  have*  not  learned  by  co-operation  to  work  together, 
to  kill  the  mammoth  of  selfishness  that  preys  upon  them. 

The  workers  in  the  great  shops  have  not  learned  the  lesson 
of  co-operation.  They  endure  in  sullen  silence  conditions  that 
they  consider  unjust.  And  then  they  strike,  tens  of  thousands 
of  them.  And  they  hurt  themselves  and  eacl>  other  more  than 
they  hurt  anybody  else.  They  go  hungry,  and,  by  and  by,  they 
go  back  and  work  again.  They  think  that  what  they  do  is  co-oper- 
ation. It  is  only  MOB  STRUGGLE. 

There  was  more  real  co-operation,  considering  the  times  and 


68  The  Religion  of  a Socialist. 

the  limited  knowledge,  among  the  old  cave  men  that  killed  the 
mammoth  than  among  the  so-called  intelligent  citizens  of  a mod- 
ern republic. 

We  have  our  chance  to  co-operate  at  the  ballot  box — we  don't 
use  it.  We  walk  up  to  that  box,  in  separate,  fighting  crowds. 

But,  at  least,  we  can  read  and  talk  to  each  other,  and  we 
know  WHAT  CO-OPERATION  COULD  DO  IF  WE  WOULD 
USE  IT. 

Compare  real  civilization,  real  civic  intelligence,  real  co-oper- 
ation. We  are  as  backward  and  savage  as  the  man  in  this  pic- 
ture compared  with  the  city  upon  which  he  fixes  his  dull  gaze. 

But,  time  is  long,  there  is  plenty  of  it  ahead.  We  do  learn, 
we  do  think,  we  do,  in  our  dull,  feeble  way,  co-operate,  as  did  the 
killers  of  the  mammoth.  And,  eventually,  the  mammoth  of  our 
day  will  be  conquered  and  vanish  as  did  the  old  hairy  monster- 
then  we  shall  pass  on  to  some  other  great  problem. 

For  problems  will  never  end,  and  improvement  will  never 
end,  and  the  human  race  will  never  stop  in  its  upward  march 
until  this  planet  shall  grow  old  and  grow  cold,  and  we  shall  all 
move  on  to  another,  better,  bigger  one,  and  begin  all  over  again. 

Progress,  effort,  struggle,  achievement,  forever  and  ever 
throughout  a univefse  that  has  no  end,  on  suns  and  planets  in- 
finite in  number — and  we  immortal.  It  is  an  exciting  program, 
well  worth  while. 

But  for  a whole  people  to  find  itself  unable  to  get  justice, 
for  ninety  per  cent  of  the  population  to  realize  that  the  courts 
are  not  for  the  poor — is  not  that  as  bad  as  the  old-fashioned 
nonsense  ? 

Isn't  it  time  for  the  people  to  get  rid  of  the  superstition 
that  has  carefully  been  planted  in  them  by  lawyers,  for  the  sake 
of  lawyers,  and  time  to  demand  that  justice  shall  be  made  simple, 
and  judges  businesslike? 

It  will  be  a better  country  when  we  get  rid  of  that  particular 
foolish  superstition  to  the  effect  that  the  laws  should  be  con- 
trolled, made  and  shaped  by  lawyers,  for  lawyers,  on  a basis  that 
puts  justice  beyond  the  reach  of  a majority,  and  UTTERLY  BE- 
YOND THE  REACH  OF  THE  POOR,  and  that  makes  one  hired 


69 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist 

citizen  on  the  bench  insolently  conscious  of  superiority  to  others. 

We  allow  our  lawyers  to  monopolize  and  regulate  justice  for 
their  own  benefit. 

If  there  are  atheists  and  infidels  in  the  Socialist  party,  it 
is  not  the  fault  of  Socialsm.  They  have  as  much  right  to  mem- 
bership there  as  in  any  of  the  other  political  parties  under  a 
free  government. 

As  all  class  struggles  necessarily  are  political  wars  to  gain 
titles  of  ownership,  the  working  class  must  take  political  action 
to  invest  in  itself  the  titles  to  the  property  its  labor  produces 
and  the  Socialist  party  is  the  agency  to  do  it.  A state  legisla- 
ture whose  membership  was  composed  of  two-thirds  of  revolu- 
tionary workingmen  could  repeal,  with  the  governor's  help,  the 
laws  that  give  authority  to  corporations  to  keep  private  armies 
for  the  purpose  of  bulldozing  dissatisfied  employes.  Should  the 
courts  attempt  to  set  aside  the  acts  of  the  legislature  it  could 
try,  impeach  and  remove  the  judges.  If  it  were  necessary  the 
governor  could  call  the  legislature  to  meet  in  special  session  to 
take  this  action  to  protect  the  welfare  of  the  working  class.  It 
could  make  the  killing  of  working  people  in  industrial  and  com- 
mercial plants  and  in  mines  and  on  railroads  and  in  marine  trans- 
portation murder — a capital  offense  punishable  .by  death  or  im- 
prisonment for  life. 

A mayor  of  a city,  in  which  he  is  commander-in-chief  of  the 
police,  could  use  them  to  arrest  strike-breakers  as  suspicious 
characters  whose  presence  and  actions  would  be  likely  to  create 
disorder,  foment  trouble  and  incite  to  riot,  thereby  endangering 
the  lives  of  the  working  class  citizens,  and  their  labor-power, 
which  they  sell  to  the  job  owners  for  wages. 

A governor  of  a state  is  the  commander-in-chief  of  its  mil- 
itary forces.  By  political  action  the  Socialist  party,  or  in  other 
words,  class  conscious  working  people,  can  by  their  votes  elect 
a revolutionary  workingman  governor,  and  as  governor  he  can 
use  the  state  militia  to  force  associations  like  the  Business  Men's 
Alliance  and  the  Merchants'  and  Manufacturers'  Associations  to 
leave  unmolested  the  officers  and  members  of  labor  organizations. 


70 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist 


SOCIAL  SCIENCE  ABLE  TO  PREVENT  THE  DESTRUCTION 
OF  CIVILIZATION. 

Physical  science  has  found  a way  to  prolong  human  life. 

Social  science  has  found  a way  to  prolong  the  social  life. 

Social  science  has  the  only  remedy. 

How  did  you  get  it? 

, By  searching, the  records  of  history. 

Babylon,  Greece,  Rome  and  China  were  high  up  in  civiliza- 
tion; they  went  to  destruction. 

Why?  Because  the  few  controlled  the  many. 

Why  do  we  close  windows  and  doors  when  there  is  a bad 
electrical  storm  outside?  Because  experience  has  taught  us  that 
lightning  is  drawn  in  drafts. 

Social  science  has  learned  through  historical  experience  that 
civilization  will  fall  wherever  the  few  control  the  many. 

Now  what  is  the  remedy? 

Experience  is  always  the  best  teacher. 

As  a precaution  against  lightning,  abolish  the  draft. 

Against  the  destruction  of  civilization  abolish  the  control 
of  the  many  by  the  few.  Then  what? 

Establish  thje  will  of  all  the  people,  which  is 

SOCIAL  DEMOCRACY. 

Unproductive  labor  is  supported  by  productive  labor.  One 
man  is  engaged  in  making  shoes,  another  in  making  clothes.  A 
merchant  buys"  the  shoes  from  the  former  at  seventy-five  per  cent 
and  sells  them  to  the  latter  at  one  hundred  per  cent,  and  vice 
versa.  These  two  men  are  supporting  the  merchant.  In  our  pres- 
ent industrial  system  every  producer  is  supporting  nineteen  para- 
sites. Abolish  the  system  and  the  producer  will  get  the  full  value 
for  his  labor. 

Read  much;  the  Mind,  which  never  can  be  still. 

If  not  intent  on  Good,  is  prone  to  ill. 

And  where  bright  thoughts  or  Reasoning  just  you  find. 

Repose  them  carefully  in  your  inmost  mind. 

— Benjamin  Franklin. 


71 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist, 

Socialism,  as  we  teach  it  in  America,  is  simply  the  substitu- 
tion of  the  co-operative  for  the  competitive  system.  We  pro- 
pose to  make  the  government  the  sole  capitalist,  the  agent  of  the 
people,  to  manage  the  industrial  system  for  the  benefit  of  all. 
American  Socialism  does  not  propose  to  interfere  with  the  home, 
family  or  religion.  It  does  not  propose  to  interfere  with  private 
propei;;ty,  or  to  make  a new  distribution  of  the  national  wealth. 
It  simply  intends  that  the  government  shall  buy  the  means  of 
production  and  transportation  from  private  individuals  and  oper- 
ate these  for  the  benefit  of  the  people  at  large. 

Under  Socialism  there  would  be  no  tramps.  A large  num- 
ber of  people  are  tramps  because  they  cannot  get  work.  A vast 
number  cannot  get  work  that  they  are  able  to  perform.  Some 
were  clerks,  or  bookkeepers,  or  mechanics,  and,  having  lost  their 
positions,  are  unable  to  perform  the  hard  labor  of  the  railroad 
section  hand.  Some  are  tramps  because  they  were  discouraged 
by  long  hours  of  laborious  toil,  with  insufficient  remuneration. 
Some  have  i)ecome  hardened  by  the  a,sperities  of  the  world. 
Some  few  are  dishonest,  but  the  public  is  not  aware  of  the  fact, 
and  gives  them  a support.  Some  were  born  tired,  because  their 
mothers  labored  "ike  galley  slaves  during  gestation,  and  the  un- 
born foetus  has  been  impregnated  with  ennui  and  lassitude,  and 
comes  into  the  world  cursed  with  physical  debility.  Under  So- 
cialism, the  working  day  would  be  reduced  to  two  hours,  and 
there  would  be  labor  for  all,  with  a just  compensation,  and  your 
tramps  would  disappear  from  the  nation. 

Socialism  will  give  every  man  an  opportunity.  It  will  make 
all  men  free* and  equal.  Under  it  there  will  be  no  privileged 
class,  and  this  is  why  it  has  been  so  obstinately  opposed. 

The  capitalists  say  that  under  Socialism  our  powers  of  pro- 
ductivity would  be  multiplied  twenty-fold,  and  that  we  would 
have  too  much,  and  that  would  be  worse  than  starving.  If  men 
are  not  constantly  employed,  they  will  become  inert  and  slothful, 
and  civilization  will  retrograde.  These  people  presume  that  man 
is  actuated  solely  by  corporal  desires,  and  forget  the  existence 
of  the  human  mind. 


72  The  Religion  of  a Socialist 

« It  cannot  be  that  all  the  years  of  toil  and  care  and  grief 
We  live,  shall  find  no  recompense  but  tears. 

No  sweet  return  that  earth  can  give 

That  all  that  leads  us  to  aspire  and  struggle  onward  to  achieve 
With  even  unattained  desire 
Was  given  only  to  deceive. 

Republicans  are  not  interested  in  ideas,  but  in  offices.  That 
is  the  plain  truth  about  the  rascals.  And  the  worst  feature  is 
that  the  scamps  want  the  offices  in  order  to  draw  the  salaries. 
Now  we  Democrats  are  also  very  fond  of  pie,  but  our  purpose 
is  to  save  the  country.  We  feel  that  we  can  be  of  more  benefit 
to  the  people  if  we  have  a good  office  where  we  can  devote  our 
entire  time  to  them.  Of  course,  we  want  the  salaries  too,  but 
our  purpose  is  to  earn  a living  while  we  are  doipg  good.  An  out- 
sider might  not  see  the  difference,  but  it  is  very  plain.  The  Re- 
publicans want  the  offices  just  for  the  pay,  while  we  Democrats 
want  the  pay  only  because  it  is  necessary  for  us  to  have  some- 
thing with  which  to  pay  our  bills  while  we  are  laboring  unsel- 
fishly for  the  welfare  of  that  class  known  as  ‘The  people.’" 

The  battle  against  the  political  boss  is  a good  battle.  Let 
it  go  on  until  this  species  of  boss  is  eliminated.  But  how  about 
getting  rid  of  the  boss  in  industry?  Is  he  really  needed,  or 
could  we  not  do  without  him  by  co-operative  organization  of  in- 
dustries? That  is  the  latest  ideal.  “Call  no  man  your  master,” 
was  said  some  2,000  years  ago,  but  mastery  continued  ever  since. 
Suppose  the  government  should  buy  out  the  trusts,  as  Mr. 
Ameringer  suggested  at  the  City  Club  the  other  day,  the  con- 
sumers might  be  benefited.  But  the  industries  thus  made  pub- 
lic ^property  would  be  run  on  the  boss  system.  The  workers  in 
them  would  be  in  about  the  same  position  as  they  afe  now.  Strikes 
among  government  “servants”  show  the  need  of  getting  rid  of  the 
boss  system  everywhere.  Let  the  workers  choose  their  own  fore- 
men and  leaders,  using  the  recall  when  they  become  tryannous. 
That  is  the  solution  of  the  problem. 

We  still  bow  down  to  the  theory,  that  a few  people  have  the 
right  to  own  streets  and  gas  companies,  and  turn  into  hundreds 
of  millions  for  themselves  the  necessities  of  millions  of  indi- 
viduals—that  idea  needs  to  be  killed  off, 


73 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist, 

On,  my  fair  country!  land  of  my  nativity!  I love  thee!  I 
love  thy  mountains  and  thy  hills,  thy  meadows  and  thy  groves. 
I love  thy  brooks  and  rills,  and  lakes  and  bays,  and  seas  and 
streams!  I love  the  pioneers  who  brought  the  blessings  of  civ- 
ilization to  the  wilderness.  I love  the  heroes  who  bore  the  starry 
banner  from  Bunker  Hill  till  it  waved  in  triumph  above  the  flag 
of  the  Briton  from  the  walls  of  Yorktown.  I love  the  patriots 
who  consecrated  the  temple  of  freedom  and  enthroned  the  goddess 
of  liberty  in  the  halls  of  the  nation.  I go  back  in  fancy’s  flight 
to  the  early  days  of  our  history.  I visit  the  mausoleums,  where 
sleep  the  bones  of  the  valiant  dead.  I summon  the  shades  of  the 
silent  heroes  from  the  dust  of  ages.  I conjure  the  spirits  of 
Washington  and  Jefferson  to  arise  from  their  somber  tombs  and 
breathe  upon  the  ebbing  life  of  the  nation  and  restore  it  to  the 
bloom  of  health,  that  sons  of  freedom  may  be  born  to  protect  the 
rising  generation  from  the  thralldom  of  capitalism. 

Socialism  does  not  advocate  violent  methods.  We  advocate 
the  gradual  absorption  of  industries  by  the  government.  Social- 
ism will  be  inaugurated  by  the  municipal  ownership  of  light, 
water,  and  street  railways.  The  government  will  then  acquire 
one  of  the  many  lines  of  the  railroads  of  the  nation.  If  these 
attempts  are  successful,  another  railroad  will  be  nationalized,  and 
finally  the  government  will  have  complete  control  of  its  trans- 
portation. Every  movement  in  this  direction  will  be  an  object 
lesson,  and  will  finally  culminate  in  national  collectivism.  If  the 
railroads,  for  instance,  should  refuse  to  sell,  the  government  will 
build  rival  roads,  and  the  immense  profits  now  accruing  to  the 
stockholders  will  be  used  in  the  reduction  of  rates  and  the  in- 
crease of  wages,  and  thus  the  private  roads  will  pass  out  of  ex- 
istence. There  is  no  injustice  in  this  action,  for  if  the  roads  now 
operated  by  private  companies  can  not  compete  with  the  na- 
tional roads,  according  to  the  competitive  system,  they  should 
succumb. 

Freedom  Was  the  Beginning  of  All  Civilization. 

But  this  freedom  has  been  carried  on  under  a system  of  prof- 
iting one  man  upon  another,  which  has  created  a land-owning  and 


74  The  Religion  of  a Socialist. 

tool-owning  aristocracy.  When  the  rich  aristocracy  can  no  longer 
make  profits  they  will  use  the  power  of  their  stolen  wealth  to 
turn  the  human  race  back  into  slavery  or  a long  lasting  chaos 
will  destroy  all  civilization,  turning  the  race  back  into  barbarism. 

International  capital  is  in  conspiracy  to  establish  a new 
system  of  international  slavery. 

In  the  long  struggle  of  the  pioneers  to  subjugate  the  arid 
deserts  to  reveal  the  hidden  stores  of  wealth,  poverty  has  often 
arisen  and  the  battle  with  it  has  been  long  and  fierce,  but  our 
poverty  problem  is  not  like  that.  It  is  poverty,  not  in  an  arid 
desert,  but  a garden  of  plenty.  Wild  beasts  and  savage  Indians 
no  longer  threaten  this  new  home,  but  a horde  of  far  more  crafty 
foes  hover  near — the  idle,  useless  ruling  class  that  live  and  prey 
on  labor's  back. 

The  Workingman’s  Answer  to  the  Capitalist  Class. 

We  have  fed  you  all  for  a thousand  years  and  you  hail  us  yet 
unfed.  There  is  not  a dollar  of  all  your  wealth  but  marks  the 
workers  dead.  We  have  yielded  our  best  to  give  you  rest.  You 
lie  on  crimson  wool.  If  blood  be  the  price  of  all  your  wealth, 
good  God,  we  have  paid  it  in  full.  There  is  not  a mine  blown 
skyward  now  but  we  are  buried  for  you.  There  is  not  a wreck 
that  drifts  shoreward  now  but  we  are  its  ghastly  crew.  Go, 
reckon  our  dead  by  the  forges  red,  and  factories  where  we  spin. 
If  blood  be  the  price  of  all  your  wealth,  good  God,  we  have  paid 
for  it.  We  have  fed  you  for  a thousand  years,  but  that  v/as  our 
doom.  You  know,  from  the  time  you  chained  us  in  the  fields  to 
the  strike  of  a week  ago  you  have  eaten  our  lives,  our  babies  and 
wives,  but  that  was  your  legal  share,  but  if  blood  be  the  price  of 
your  legal  wealth,  good  God,  we  have  bought  it  fair. — Rudyard 
Kipling. 

Backing  Their  Union. 

American  college  and  university  professors  may  hold  clear 
views  about  the  unwholesomeness  of  the  unionism  of  the  Amer- 
ican working  class  men,  but  they  see  just  as  clearly  that  the 
unionism  of  the  college  and  university  professors  is  exactly  what 


75 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist 

is  needed.  University  professors  have  been  hoeing  in  a rather 
hard  row  recently,  and  the  outlook  for  their  future  is  anything 
but  bright  from  the  standpoint  of  their  unionism.  They  have 
been  getting  ''canned''  right  and  left  all  over  the  country  lately, 
and  if  their  union  is  to  be  saved  from  wreckage  they  realize  they 
must  do  something.  They  have  been  talking,  but  apparently  the 
more  they  talk  the  more  they  get  themselves  into  trouble. 

A committee  of  the  American  Association  of  University  Pro- 
fessors has  just  reported  on  an  inquiry  into  the  wholesale  dis- 
missal of  members  of  the  faculty  at  the  University  of  Utah^  The 
report  says  that  three  of  the  four  reasons  given  by  the  president 
of  the  university  are  illegal,  and  the  fourth  is  untrue,  or,  in  the 
language  of  the  committee,  "has  no  basis  in  fact."  This  is  the 
cultural  way  of  getting  service  from  a substitute  for  the  shorter 
and  uglier  word.  The  report  says  there  was  no  reason  for  the 
dismissal  of  four  professors,  and  hands  out  some  hot  criticism 
of  the  conduct  of  the  university,  the  government  of  which,  the 
report  says,  "is  a government  of  men,  not  of  laws." 

Now  if  these  university  professors  will  just  recognize  the 
parallel  that  exists  between  themselves  and  every  other  man  who 
works  for  his  living,  with  head  or  hands,  or  both,  they  will  find 
something  that  will  be  of  advantage  to  them  and  their  union. 

It  must  be  evident  to  them  as  it  is  to  working  class  men, 
that  there  is  somebody  who  is  deadly  opposed  to  free  speech, 
truthful  teaching,  and  academic  discussions.  It  isn't  the  work- 
ing class  man,  and  plainly  it  isn't  the  college  and  university  pro- 
fessors. Just  as  evidently  it  must  be  somebody  whose  material 
interests  are  opposed  to  the  interests  of  the  working  class  man 
and  the  college  professor.  Perhaps  men  like  William  Barnes  and 
Elihu  Root  can  tell  who  it  is. 

Starting  to  Think. 

One  of  the  topics  discussed  in  the  national  convention  of 
educators  yesterday  was  that  of  the  social  and  industrial  unrest 
and  its  possible  outcome.  The  chief  speaker  had  some  rather 
gloomy  views  in  which  fear  was  strong  in  the  mixture. 

It  is  one  of  the  good  signs  for  any  country  when  its  edu- 


76 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist 

cators  take  up  social  and  economic  problems  that  always  are  the 
first  in  importance.  It  is  evidence  that  educators  have  come 
finally  to  recognize  the  main  function  of  education  and  to  try  to 
spread  the  truth  about  that  function. 

Our  education  has  come  to  be  too  much  like  our  religion  and 
our  politics,  matters  of  inheritance.  That  attitude  has  affected 
the  best  qualities  of  religion  and  politics,  and  it  will  also  affect 
the  best  in  education  unless  we  watch  it. 

Among  educators  the  tendency  is  to  divide  into  two  extreme 
wings — one  far  advanced,  the  other  far  behind  its  time.  The 
difference  is  so  wide  that  the  advanced  men  have  been  muzzled 
or  are  being  mmzzled  either  by  official  censure  and  restrictions,  or 
by  outright  dismissal.  The  men  who  are  so  far  behind  the  times 
that  they  are  scarcely  representative  of  modern  education  have 
the  floor,  but  they  have  lost  their  value  as  educators.  Teachers, 
but  not  educators. 

Many  years  ago  the  good  Quaker  poet,  John  Greenleaf  Whit- 
tier, advised  the  young  men  of  his  day  to  '‘seek  for  some  just  and 
despised  cause  and  attach  themselves  to  it.'’  Today  we  call  upon 
all  men  and  women,  young  and  old  alike,  who  believe  that  the 
Socialist  cause  is  just,  to  attach  themselves  to  it.  By  voting  for 
Socialism  if  they  have  votes,  by  urging  others  to  vote  for  it  if 
they  have  no  votes  themselves;  by  carefully  studying  its  litera- 
ture and  equipping  themselves  to  plead  its  cause  successfully, 
either  in  private  or  in  public,  and  to  defend  it  whenever  the 
need  arises,  it  is.  possible  for  every  man  and  woman  who  believes 
in  Socialism  to  identify  himself  or  herself  with  it.  That  is  the 
minimum  of  service  to  be  expected  from  the  earnest  man  or 
woman  who  believes  that  the  Socialist  cause  is  just  and  true. 

A still  greater  service  is  possible  by  joining  the  Socialist 
party,  the  organized  effort  of  thousands  of  devoted  men  and 
women  of  all  races  and  creeds  to  develop  the  Socialist  movement 
in  America  along  intelligent  lines.  The  Socialist  party  exists 
primarily  for  the  purpose  of  making  Socialists.  By  a carefully 
organized  propaganda Jt  is  possible  for  people  to  accomplish  much 
more  in  the  way  of  creating  Socialist  sentiment  than  the  same 
people  could  accomplish  by  acting  individually.  Not  only  so, 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist  77 

but  by  having  a well  organized  political  party  to  carry  on  politi- 
cal campaigns  it  is  rendered  possible  to  keep  the  Socialist  cause 
from  being  trailed  in  the  dirt  by  freaks  on  the  one  hand,  or  by 
charlatans  on  the  other.  Organized  in  every  state  and  territory, 
the  Socialist  party  is  open  to  every  man  or  woman  desiring  to  join 
it,  provided  that  they  renounce  all  connection  with  any  and  every 
other  political  party,  and  accept  the  principles  set  forth  in  the 
Socialist  party  platform  and  the  rules  of  the  Socialist  party. 

The  Socialist  party  differs  in  many  important  respects  from 
every  other  political  party.  In  the  first  place,  all  its  members 
pay  ‘‘dues,’"  a small  monthly  sum,  for  the  support  of  the  party. 
This  unusual  practice  is  observed  for  the  reason  that  it  is  a 
working  class  party ; it  is  the  safeguard  of  the  party  against  cor- 
ruption and  betrayal.  The  other  great  political  parties  have  no 
such  system. 

The  king  can  do  no  wrong'  not  only  because  he  is  above 
the  law,  but  because  every  function  is  either  performed  or  re- 
sponsibility assumed  by  his  ministers  and  agents.  Similarly,  our 
Rockefellers,  Morgans,  Fricks,  Vanderbilts  and  Astors  can  do 
no  industrial  wrong  because  all  effective  action  and  direct  re- 
sponsibility is  shifted  from  them  to  the  executive  officials  who 
manage  American  industry." — From  Press  Abstract  of  Report  of 
United  States  Commission  on  Industrial  Relations, 

25,000  KILLED  AT  WORK.  . 

While  Americans  are  horrified  at  the  carnage  of  European 
war,  and  devising  methods  to  stop  this  holocaust,  the  Federal 
Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  Washington,  D.  C.,  calls  attention  to 
the  fact  that  25,000  wage  workers  of  both  sexes  are  killed  in  this 
country  every  year. 

During  the  same  period  the  number  of  injured  that  are  dis- 
abled more  than  four  weeks  approximate  700,000. 

These  members,  involving  the  killing  and  maiming  of  vast 
armies  of  American  workers,  fail  to  fully  indicate  the  number  of 
industrial  accidents,  for  such  studies  as  have  already  been  made 
show  that  of  accidents  involving  disabilities  of  one  day  and  over, 
at  least  three-fourths  terminate  during  the  first  four  weeks, ' 


78 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist, 

The  bureau,  in  its  statement,  shows  that  metal  mining  ranks 
as  the  most  hazardous,  with  a rate  of  four^  workers  killed  last 
year  for  every  1,000  employed.  Coal  mining  comes  next  with  a 
rate  of  3.5,  and  fisheries  and  navigation  follow  with  a rate  of 
three  per  1,000  employed. 

The  industries  which  constitute  the  greatest  number  of  fatal 
accidents,  regardless  of  per  cent  employed,  are  railroad  employ- 
ments and  agricultural  pursuits,  each  group  being  responsible 
for  approximately  4,200  deaths  each  year.  Coal  mining  con- 
tributes more  than  2,600,  and  building  and  construction  work 
nearly  1,000. 

The  report  says  that  compensation  laws  will  lead  to  an  in- 
crease in  the  reported  number  of  accidents.  Aggressive  accident 
prevention  work  is  urged,  as  it  is  stated  that  where  this  has 
been  undertaken  the  number  of  accidents  have  been  reduced  one- 
half. 

The  man  who  throws  this  economic  and  social  problem 
squarely  into  the  national  convention  of  educators  has  done  a 
good  service.  It  doesn't  make  much  difference  what  the  attitude 
of  this  particular  convention  is  toward  the  problem.  The  mere 
fact  that  some  one  courageous  soul  took  the  problem  in  and 
dropped  it  upon  the  floor,  compelling  everybody  to  at  least  take  a 
good  look  at  it,  is  enough  for  the  day.  It  will  set  someone  to 
thinking,  and  that,  after  all,  is  the  main  problem.  Get  men  to 
thinking,  and  they  will  do  the  rest. 

The  public,  like  juries,  may  often  be  wrong,  but  they  are 
oftener  right. 

CAUSE  AND  EFFECT. 

‘‘There  must  be  poor  people  in  the  world. 

We  can't  all  be  rich.” 

This  is  the  view  of  a rich  woman  of  New  York,  expressed 
with  candor  if  not  with  full  knowledge.  If  this  woman  were  in 
politics  she  would  be  what  is  known  as  a standpatter  or  a re- 
actionary. She  takes  things  as  they  are,  and  calls  any  other  con- 
dition wrong  or  worse. 

When  she  says,  “We  can't  all  be  rich,”  she  seems  to  have 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist 


sensed  something  without  knowing  what  that  something  is.  A 
loud  booming  noise  may  be  caused  by  the  firing  of  a cannon, 
the  rolling  of  the  thunder  or  just  a heavy  blast  in  the  quarry  or 
on  the  excavating  job  with  the  muffler  on. 

She  didn’t  know  it  and  probably  never  will,  but  she  hit  on 
the  truth  of  the  case  when  she  linked  poverty  and  riches  so 
closely.  Without  knowing  why  she  instinctively  believed  that 
unless  we  have  the  poor,  the  poverty,  we  cannot  have  the  riches 
and  the  comfort. 

She  hit  the  truth  squarely.  We  may  not  like  to  have  all  the 
poverty,  so  many  of  the  poor,  but  when  we  realize  that  to  give 
up  the  poverty,  the  poor,  we  must  give  up  the  riches,  then  we 
begin  to  see  things  in  a different  light.  We  can’t  have  the  riches 
withont  the  poverty.  We  can’t  have  rich  men,  and  women  and 
children  unless  we  have  a much  larger  number  of  poverty- 
stricken  men,  women  and  children.  The  more  poverty  the  more 
riches.  They  go  together. 

Here  is  the  greatest  obstacle  to  changes  in  our  social  rela- 
tions. It  would  be  desirable,  even  the  broad-minded  rich  admit 
that,  to  have  the  world  free  of  poverty,  and  the  suffering  that 
flows  from  it,  but  it  would  be  disaster  to  have  the  world  free  of 
rich  men,  and  women,  and  children.  There’s  the  rub. 

If  we  could  get  rid  of  the  poor  people  and  their  poverty  with- 
out getting  rid  of  the  rich  people  and  their  riches  there  would 
be  something  different  to  work  upon.  But  we  can’t.  For  the 
riches  of  the  rich  are  built  upon  the  poverty  of  the  poor.  We 
can’t  give  up  one  without  sacrificing  the  other. 

Nothing  is  plainer  than  if  all  were  rich  there  would  be  no 
poor,  and  if  all  were  poor  there  would  be  no  rich.  But  let  some 
advantage  be  introduced  into  the  social  machine  and  immediately 
those  who  have  the  advantage  lose  their  poverty  and  those  who 
were  poor  before  become  poorer.  The  poorer  the  poor  become  the 
richer  become  the  rich. 

Riches  is  the  child  of  poverty  and  she  is  a heartless  and 
unfeeling  child.  She  decks  herself  in  fine  feathers,  and  purple, 
and  fine  linen,  and  silks,  and  satins,  while  the  mother  at  whose 
breast  she  fed  goes  hungered  for  a crust  and  a drink. 


The  Religion  of  a Socialist 

When  they  meet  the  unnatural  child  turns  her  back  upon  the 
mother.  She  doesn’t  know  her.  She  feels  safe  because  she  knows 
that  the  maternal  love  of  the  mother  will  protect  even  an  unnat- 
ural, unfeeling,  and  heartless  child.  Like  the  human  mother,  the 
social  mother  will  starve  herself  to  death  that  her  child  have 
luxury. 

This  New  York  rich  woman  might  have  expressed  herself 
just  as  w^ell  by  saying,  ‘‘We  can’t  have  children  unless  we  have 
mothers.” 

The  poor  is  the  mother  of  the  rich.  Without  the  poor,  and 
many  of  them,  there  could  be  no  rich,  not  even  a few.  The  poor 
give  up  their  lives  that  the  rich  may  be  rich.  Riches  are  built 
upon  poverty.  There  must  be  plenty  of  the  poor  that  the  rich 
may  be  rich.  Otherwise  there  could  be  no  rich. 

If  the  rich  knew  clearly  that  they  are  the  offspring:  of  the 
poor  and  of  poverty,  and  if  the  poor  knew  clearly  that  it  is  their 
poverty  that  produces  the  rich,  we  should  not  have  so  many  poor 
and  so  few  rich.  We  should  have  more  rich  and  fewer  poor. 

Today  man  goes  to  his  work  with  all  his  thoughts,  talents 
and  energy  concentrated  on  one  utterly  debasing  object — the  ac- 
cumulation of  money  for  money  sake.  No  matter  in  what  light 
you  view  such  a man,  you  can  regard  him  as  only  a hog.  He  is 
deaf  to  the  voice  crying  in  the  wilderness,  “Bear  ye  one  another’s 
burden.”  He  is  deaf  to  all  finer  feelings,  he  is  walking  on  four 
legs  instead  of  two;  he  is  not  seeking  for  light  and  guidance, 
but  roots  for  pelf  with  his  nose  close  to  the  ground  as  is  cus- 
tomary with  all  other  animals  of  his  class  actuated  by  no  worthy 
motive,  guided  by  no  ennobling  impulse.  We  get  our  ideals  by 
looking  upward  and  outward;  we  go  to  our  doom  by  looking 
downward. 

Everything  that  can  be  done  by  machinery  should  be  done. 
When  all  the  heavy  tasks  are  performed  by  whizzing  wheels 
and  bands  of  steel,  men  will  have  more  time  for  recreation  and 
there  will  still  be  enough  pleasant  tasks  to  be  done  by  hand  to 
keep  humanity  out  of  mischief. 


